


Revery of Silence

by TardisGhost



Series: The Crow and the Beast [3]
Category: Doctor Who, Doctor Who & Related Fandoms, Doctor Who (2005)
Genre: Action/Adventure, Angst and Humor, Eleventh Doctor Era, F/M, Fluff, Master with identity crysis, Mystery, Rewrite, River slaps the Master, Romance, and new adventures, not a plain rewrite, occasionally very dark, season 5
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-08-01
Updated: 2020-02-05
Packaged: 2020-07-27 11:44:53
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 33
Words: 138,648
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20045467
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TardisGhost/pseuds/TardisGhost
Summary: The Doctor only wants to move on from his past, but it refuses to rest. He is hunted down by the Master, who not only drags a kidnapped human woman with him, but also demands help with "fixing" her. Amy convinces the Doctor to agree, unknowing of whom she invited into their little team and of how things might change with those two aboard.





	1. I - What was and might become

**Author's Note:**

> This story can be read entirely on its own! All significant details will be explained when they get important.  
It is, however, a direct sequel to my previous story "The Master's Game". So if you want all the details, head over and read it. ;)
> 
> This is _not_ a simple rewrite of episodes. Occasionally I do use parts (bigger or smaller) from the show, but most of the story is original in some way.
> 
> I hope you'll enjoy this story! And don't forget to fav and follow and also leave some comments. Even a simple one-liner can motivate a lot! So don't be shy. x3

**Act I - What was and might become**

_In which the Doctor's past collides with possibility and old friends return. In which love turned to rejection and Amy tries to bring back a smile_

* * *

Amelia Pond followed the Doctor back to the TARDIS with light steps. They had made it! Once again. She had met Winston Churchill himself, had seen London during the war, had helped fighting off those Dalek things - she still had no idea what exactly they even had been though. Together with the Doctor she had even convinced the old mad scientist to live a nice life as a human, instead of deactivating himself. However, Amy really had a hard time not laughing at the thought of how this Dorabella might look at him, should she ever find out that he was a machine inside.

They had almost reached the blue box, making Amy crave the next adventure already. This hadn't taken up too much time and she was still full with adrenalin, ready for more, and plenty of it.

"So, you have enemies then?" Amy wanted to know, a light sting of guilty conscience nagging on her at the thought of maybe never returning to _tomorrow_.

"Everyone's got enemies." The Doctor shrugged.

"Yeah," she chuckled. "But mine's the woman outside Budgens with the mental Jack Russell. You've got, like, you know, _arch-enemies_."

An amused giggle came from behind them at those words. Had they been followed by one of the staff? The Doctor didn't seem to have noticed, too sunken into his worries about the newly born Daleks. Only Amy turned around, but all she saw were people in uniform and some blond guy, casually leaning at the wall nearby. He looked a bit out of place and even winked at her, then turned around and simply walked away.

Just some bloke flirting maybe? Whatever. They had reached the TARDIS and leaned against it, looking at each other.

A grin whizzed over Amy's face. "And here's me thinking we'd just be running through time, being daft and fixing stuff. But no, it's dangerous."

"Yep. Very." The Doctor promised. "Is that a problem?"

Oh no. This wasn't a problem at all. Quite the opposite.

"Ahhh!" The Doctor stretched his arms out. "I love strolling through London from time to time."

"Blarg... Nothing ever happens here," Amy protested and cautiously glanced around, hoping to find some danger, or a mystery. Or anything at all but stinky London air. Something that might have make the Doctor to come here of all places.

"Oh, that's not true! Lots of stuff happens here. All the time!" He whirled around, sliding a finger over a nearby wall and put it into his mouth, raising an eyebrow. "Remember Christmas? Not sure which one, but not too long ago. Big red planet in the sky?"

"Errr... what? No, there wasn't a... Wait... was there?" She was confused since the Doctor had mentioned that she was supposed to remember the Daleks. It had happened not too long ago and the whole world knew about it. Everyone but her.

"Yep, they told everyone it was mass hallucinations, but that's rubbish." He lead them down a tight side road, scanning trash bins and pipes and once even a sleeping cat with his sonic screwdriver.

Five minutes later they had reached a bigger road with lots of traffic. Children were screaming on a small playground nearby and a tiny group of people lined up on a fast food vehicle. Only two of them had stayed to eat nearby, and Amy blinked puzzled. That blond guy looked familiar. Had she seen him somewhere before?

She turned to the Doctor to ask him, but he had already strolled on, now scanning handfuls of sand, squatting down amidst a bunch of toddlers. The sight made her laugh.

"I almost wouldn't have found you there," she mocked. "It's hard to make you out among those." Her hand waved at the curiously looking children. One of them carefully poked the strange man with their plastic shovel.

"Huh?" The Doctor glanced up, but before he could reply, his sonic let out a set of whirrs. Once, then twice. It always were four short sounds, followed by a pause, before it repeated. "Now that's peculiar," he muttered, taking some wide steps out of the sand, eyes glued to his sonic.

"Okay... We're clearly _not_ here because you like London so much." Amy rushed to his side and glared at the device in his hand. To her it looked like a toy and there was no indication at all as to what he was even glaring at. "Come ooon, tell me!" she begged.

"Nothing! A mistake." The Doctor pocketed the screwdriver quickly. "Has to be. The trace leads nowhere." He pointed a finger at Amy. "And I never lose a trace. So there was none to begin with."

"What trace?" She shifted impatiently.

"Oh, must be some... I don't know... Wi-Fi pollution maybe. That stuff's everywhere nowadays. And you lot wonder why you have headaches so often. Really, it's so obvious. Why does no one ever think of the stuff that's right in front of their noses?"

"Becaaause... they like their internet more than they hate swallowing aspirin?" Amy suggested with a shrug, trudging obediently behind him.

She listened to the Doctor's ramblings, trying to make any sense of them. Here and there he got out his sonic again, holding it up into the air or pointing it at random things, sometimes listening to its whirs afterwards, other times only staring at the thing as if it would offer all the wisdom of the universe. And still, even though he had denied its existence, the weird signal of four sounds was still there from time to time and they definitely were following it. Strangely enough though it seemed to have lead them back to the TARDIS.

"Err... Doctor!" Amy tugged at his jacket to gain at least a fragment of attention, whilst he was intensely staring at a trash bin.

"What is it?" He suddenly whirled around. "Found anything?"

"Yeah, well, depends... I guess." She shrugged and pointed at the TARDIS. "Rather some_one_. Aaand they are using your ship to sleep on it."

"What?!" The Doctor squinted his eyes and marched to the blue box, from which's roof were dangling down two pair of feet. The rest of the persons wasn't visible. "Oi! Get down there!" he whined. "You rascals!"

"Wouldn't provoke them," Amy muttered through her teeth, folding her arms.

The smaller pair of legs didn't budge, but the other one did as a person sat up and stretched his arms out with a loud yawn.

"And there it was so comfy up there," the man said casually, and Amy recognized him as the same guy from before.

He had blond, almost white hair, hazel brown eyes and sported a neatly trimmed, thin goatee. Something about him made her feel a little bit uneasy. Maybe it was because he was clad all in black, except for a blood-red tie. Maybe it was the almost murderous twinkle in his eyes that, however, vanished as he hopped down from the TARDIS roof and landed elegantly on his feet with a wide grin.

"Tadaaa! Not dead. Surprise!" he announced and dramatically opened his arms.

"Tha... tha... that can't be!" the Doctor stammered and receded a bit with an expression of utter surprise on his face.

Completely unfazed by that reaction, the blond one casually closed the distance between them with a few wide and swift steps, looking the other man up and down.

"Tz, what have you done now, Doctor?" he said with a raised eyebrow, leaning left and right as if to take a proper look. "I'm rather sure _I_ haven't made you regenerate."

"Wha... no. It was... what? How can you be here?" the Doctor stammered, completely frozen.

"My, my, you look like a little boy now." The blond chuckled and pinched the other one's cheeks while doing some funny grimaces, then looked down and held up a side of the Doctor's jacket. "Still no sense for style... Suspenders, seriously? And a bowtie... of all things." His hands grabbed said bowtie and tugged a little on it to straighten it carefully.

Amy had absolutely no idea what exactly she was witnessing here. On one side this guy seemed to literally radiate danger, on the other he acted like someone, who hadn't seen a brother in a long time. Smiling and observing the Doctor as if he was genuinely happy to see him well. Something that seemed to disturb the Time Lord deeply, judging by the look on his face.

Finally he took a step back and looked the blond guy up and down. "Are you real? Is that my silly head playing tricks on me now?" The Doctor shook his head. "It's impossible! No one can get out of a time lock! And I... I will..." His mouth formed more words, without speaking them aloud.

And then he did something that surprised every single one around. He rushed a step forward and flung his arms around the other man. The blond one froze, looking so utterly perplex that it was clear that he had awaited literally anything but this. He didn't move or even twitch, but eventually smiled viscously.

"I hope you know that I have to at least _try_ to kill you for that?"

Hastily the Doctor let go and stepped back, as if he had suddenly realized that he had dunked his hands into acid.

"What is going on?" Amy begged to know.

"The end of the Doctor," murmured a sarcastic female voice behind her. "I don't think he'll forgive him that hug... _ever_."

As Amy spun around there now stood a young woman nearby, observing the odd scene. She was quite short and lanky, her dishwater blond hair tied together to a tiny ponytail, leaving only two short strands framing her face. Both hands were sunken deep inside casual jeans pockets, and she wore a simple black top underneath an opened blue plaid shirt.

Amy wasn't sure what exactly made this thought appear in her head, but somehow she couldn't shake off the feeling that this person also was somewhat dangerous. Although in a different way than the blond man. Maybe it were those bright green eyes that stared emotionless at the scene ahead, and now at her.

"You're travelling with him?" the woman asked, nodding towards the Doctor, who was still wearing his look of utter disbelief.

"Uh, yeah. And who're you?" Amy folded her arms and straightened. There was no way she would get scared of this person. A closer look made her realize that she must be younger than herself. Quite a bit so. Fifteen maybe?

The girl only shrugged and turned away, mumbling more to herself, "No one."

Slowly she then trudged towards the Doctor and also observed him a bit. He seemed surprised and hugged her too, getting almost the same non-existent reaction from her though.

"How comes I can remember you, Roka? And my! You look different. How long has it been?" he started to babble. "For me it's just a few days since you two vanished. I can't believe it!"

"Care to explaaain?" Amy fidgeted around them all, eager to finally know what was going on.

Her arm got firmly grabbed and she found herself looking straight at the blond man. "And you're his new toy?" he chuckled meanly and hummed amused. "He always loves to play with earthen girls. Pretty one though. I always had a little weakness for gingers." With a cocky bow he grabbed her hand and pretended to kiss it.

Amy tore herself away, not without giving the guy a mean glare.

He winked with a wide grin. "And now go home. You're not needed here anymore."

"And who do _you_ think you are to decide that?" Amy retorted irritated. She really didn't like that guy.

"I, my dear little puppet, am the Master." His voice got dark, as did his eyes, danger radiating from him almost physically. "Oldest friend and... _arch-enemy..._ of our lovely Doctor here."

"Also known as biggest dork of the universe," came Roka's voice from behind him, as she leaned a bit to the side to be visible to Amy. She then gave the man a venomous glare. "Oh, and for abducting humans when he's bored and then dragging them around places."

"Abducting?" the Doctor chimed in. "Last time you two were friends, I thought."

"Well... long story." The Master threw an indefinable look at the girl next to him, then turned to the Doctor, a wide smile spreading on his face. "Speaking of friends..." He put his hands on the other one's shoulders. "I thought about your offer back then. You know, before daft old Rassilon interrupted us."

"Eh? What offer? And why are you so friendly all of a sudden?"

"Probably a new trap to kill you," Roka mumbled and rolled her eyes.

Amy understood nothing anymore. None of this made any sense whatsoever. They were enemies? But then acted more... almost like family.

"Tch, those days are over." The Master pursed his lips and looked a bit downcast for a second. "No, no. It's more about the whole _seeing the universe_ stuff. And..." A quick look wandered over to Roka. "You're the expert on humans."

"What?" The Doctor's eyes darted around, searching any kind of help from the people around. "You mean, you want to..."

"Yes, old friend." The Master grinned and patted his shoulder, a bit harder than necessary. "We two are going to travel with you for a while."

Silence fell upon the peculiar group. The Doctor's eyes widened, his mouth formed unspoken words. It seemed as if he shrunk a little, then straightened again and finally, slowly, shook his head.

"No."

His answer hung in the now silent air like a reverie of doom. Everyone stared at him with a different expression. Amy was a tiny bit relieved, because the guy was creepy and she didn't want him around. Roka only arched a brow. The Master blinked a few times and looked as if he wasn't quite sure whether or not he had heard right.

"After all those years of _Let's travel together?_ it's just... no?" His face displayed sincere hurt, but not rage or hate. He actually looked a bit lost for a moment.

"Yes. It's a simple _no_," the Doctor said dryly. His expression got darker, somewhat sad and a bit angry even as he glared into the other one's eyes. "You're not to be trusted. Each and every time I do, you prove me wrong." He took a step forward and stabbed a finger at the Master's chest. "Besides, it's absolutely impossible that you're even _here_! No one! Absolutely no one can get out of a time lock!" His voice became higher and more frantic. "It's impossible! You couldn't! And everything inside the lock is... is gone." He stabbed him again. "You're supposed to be _dead_!"

"I see." The Master's expression darkened. "Must have been quite the relief to think that."

"Geez, Doctor. You're a real prick in this regeneration," Roka stepped to the Master's side with folded arms and her look indicated that she was surprised about his reaction. "Just put him in handcuffs again." She shrugged. "At least that'll get him off my back."

The Master shot her a mean glare, then turned around to the Time Lord and cracked a smile. "How about..."

"He said no," Amy threw in. "And he already has a companion. Hellooo!" She waved a hand around. "No one needs a creep, when they can have _me_. But you can leave your little sister. She's cute."

"I'm definitely _not_ his sister." Roka shuddered dramatically. "I'm not even a Time Lord."

Why did she emphasize that? Amy's eyes wandered over the Master once more. Could it be? "Are you a..."

"Amy." The Doctor turned away from his guests and marched towards the TARDIS. "We're leaving."

"But Doctor!" She ran after him with a few wide steps. "Is he? I mean, a Time Lord? You said you're the only one."

He halted and turned towards her, his eyes filled with anger, but also sadness, hurt and disbelieve. Amy still wasn't sure what to make of everything and threw a glance back at the other two. If this Master guy was a Time Lord... And why would the Doctor hug him if he hated him so much? That didn't make much sense.

Although... it did.

She still didn't like to even think about having this bloke travelling with them. But maybe it wouldn't have to come to that. She grabbed the Doctor's hand as he wanted to turn away. "Oi, not so fast. You dragged me around in a boring place like that. At least let me have a hot dog."

"Ah... I don't have money," the Doctor protested, but not very loud.

"I do. Let's go have one." She marched towards the other two, dragging the Time Lord behind her. "Hot dogs?" she asked, smiling at them.

"We just had some." Roka shrugged, her eyes nodding towards the Master. "Four in his case."

"Won't say no to a fifth one." He grinned and followed.

It was an awkward march towards the fast food vehicle. No one ushered even a single word, and when Amy came back with hot dogs for everyone, they stood silently around one of the tables, as far away from each other as possible in this tiny space.

This wouldn't be easy, she realized and watched a bit fascinated as the Master devoured his hot dog in record speed, only to then glance at Roka's, who hadn't touched hers. She rolled her eyes and pushed her paper plate towards him. The Doctor ate silently, making every effort not to look at anyone.

"So, last two Time Lords in existence then?" Amy eventually asked and bit into her own hot dog. "And you happen to hate each other? That's really unfortunate."

"And why's that your business, rust head?" the Master remarked while letting Roka's hot dog vanish.

Amy decided to ignore the jibe for now. "Just curious. You don't meet an almost extinct race every day." She let her gaze wander over the two, then winked. "Too bad you're both guys. Otherwise you could revive the species."

Roka snorted and something crossed her face that with every other person would have become a smile. Instead there was only an amused twinkle in her eyes. But even that vanished fast.

"Okay, okay, wasn't that funny." Amy raised her hands in defence. "But come on. At least talk it out and then go your ways peacefully?" That would be way better than this Master following them around. And maybe the Doctor would feel a little less lonely, knowing he wasn't the only one out there. She grabbed Roka's arm and nodded to the side. "Let's leave those grumps to themselves for a minute, eh?"

The girl looked at her a bit puzzled, then glanced over at the two, back to Amy, and nodded. Together they left towards a small group of decorative trees.

"So, is that what all Time Lords do?" Amy asked. "I mean, travelling around and grabbing some random humans on the way."

"Uh... no. Don't think so," Roka mumbled, her eyes wandering over the people who passed by.

"Well, you don't look very abducted." Amy chuckled and smiled warmly when she got a surprised look.

That girl was weird. Somehow it felt as if she wasn't as harmless as her appearance suggested, but that impression got completely destroyed by how curiously she glanced at everyone around. Almost as if she had never seen people. And when they looked back at her, she turned her head away as if surprised that they saw her.

"Maybe we can convince him to leave you with us?" Amy pondered, when she got no answer. "You don't seem to like that Master bloke. Can't blame you. He's creepy."

"He is... trouble," answered Roka quietly. "The Doctor's right, you know. He's not to be trusted." With that her look turned something in between sad and angry. Or was it hurt? "If he wouldn't have my Vortex Manipulator, I'd be long gone."

"What's that? And why does he have it?" This was too peculiar. "And how do you even know him? Did you travel with the Doctor too?"

Roka nodded. "Yah... long time ago. I basically lived in his TARDIS for some years. Then I travelled on my own." She looked up and glanced at Amy with her almost expressionless eyes. She couldn't shake the feeling of being observed by a cat. Or a little child. "A Vortex Manipulator is... a bit like a TARDIS. But it fits onto your wrist. And has no interior of course."

"Ha! So you're also a time traveller! That's cool." For a moment Amy thought about how it must be to travel all alone and without a ship to live inside. "Hooo! Wait. That makes no sense! You speak of years. How old were you when the Doctor picked you up? Five?"

There it was again, that slight glint in her eyes that was almost a smile. Had something happen to her to make her so serious? Had this Master done something bad? Amy had no idea where it came from, but somehow that girl awoke her protective instincts.

"How old do you think I am?" Roka asked and tilted her head slightly.

"Pfff... fifteen," Amy guessed and squinted her eyes, taking a closer look. "Maybe seventeen. Not a day older."

The amused glint got stronger, but she didn't give an answer. Instead she nodded at the two Time Lords that were walking towards them. The Doctor's look wandered over Roka as if he was searching for something specific, then moved to Amy, and he smiled somewhat apologetic.

"Oi, you two. Came to terms?" She folded her arms and tapped a foot.

"Yup, you can go home, matchstick," the Master announced with the widest grin. "We'll stay for a while."

"Pah! No chance, snow bonce."

"It's still blond!" he protested indignantly, and a bit whiney.

"Not much," Roka mumbled and seemed to enjoy the murderous stare she got in return.

The Doctor cleared his throat to gain some attention, his eyes darting at everyone as if he wasn't sure how this would work out. They all fell silent and marched back together.

"What about your TARDIS though?" Roka asked the Master.

"I'll leave it here. It's not as if she would get lost." He shrugged then winked at the girl with a grin. "And her type isn't so old school. I can remotely call her pretty much anywhere, if I have to."

"Oi, no insulting my TARDIS!" the Doctor protested. "Rule number one!"

They had reached the blue box and Amy looked around, awaiting to find another one nearby. The Master snickered as he saw that.

"My chameleon circuit isn't broken." His hand tapped against an advertising pillar. "She can hide herself quite well."

"Huh, so it's a mistake that yours is a police box?" she asked towards the Doctor.

"Kinda. But I like it!" His lips pursed and he stroked the blue wood tenderly, before he turned around again. "It's probably better I get you home now, Amy. There was something about tomorrow you didn't want to miss, right?"

Tomorrow.

Amy's heart clenched and her eyes darted around. "No! Wasn't important at all. Really." Her eyes came to a rest on Roka and she grabbed her arm. "Besides. I've always been an only child. Could be fun to have a little sister now."

The Master burst out into a laugh, Roka's eyes glinted again and the Doctor also looked quite amused.

"What?" Amy demanded. "Why're you all laughing at me?"

"Because," the Master leaned a bit down and grinned at the two girls, "she's two hundred years old."


	2. I - A lost past

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Just for clarity, this chapter plays right before the first one, and also right after the epilogue of the Master's Game.  
And if you come from the first story and wonder: Why the hell 150 years? Weeell... because it was interesting to have a more mature Roka (on the surface at least). And it makes for some interesting stories and stuff. ;D
> 
> Well... on we go!

With a last look at the black hole and the dying galaxies around the Master followed Roka inside his TARDIS and closed the doors behind them.

Up until this point Roka had never seen another of these machines than the Doctor's. And the difference was quite noticeable. The interior was roughly the same size and well lit, but instead of orange, the predominant colour was green. In various hues and strengths did it light up the room, coming from the hexagonal and quite modern looking control table, additionally from some lights at the walls, that were mostly lined with book shelves. One space was occupied by a table, decorated with taken apart machines and gadgets. And in front of the only blank spot stood a sofa, just long enough to comfily lie on it, and obviously mostly used for reading, as the strewn around books suggested.

As she heard the sound of the closing doors she slowly turned around. The Master took of his black coat and gave it a long, indefinable look, before he hung it on a piece of a metal arch near the door.

"Bit gloomy," Roka remarked, taking in her surroundings.

"Pfff, you just don't have a sense for style. Don't listen to that mean human. You're wonderful." The Master tenderly stroked the wall and got a content humming in return.

It was weird to be here at all. Out there everything had felt so surreal, now the weight of reality came crushing down on her again. Only a few minutes ago she had actually died, even though she couldn't remember how that had felt. The Master had returned. Gone from her life for a hundred and fifty years, only to suddenly pop back up out of nowhere. Her life had vanished, together with the glitch that had made her practically invisible for as long as she could remember. At the same time this also had somehow reversed her death.

An effect not even the Master had been able to predict. But being the man he was, he had shamelessly abused the circumstance to make her his prisoner. Not for long, Roka decided, let her backpack slide from her shoulder and wordlessly pushed it into the Master's hands as he passed her.

"There," she responded to his confused look. "You wanted all my stories. Every planet I visited, every treasure I found, every adventure I had." A bit harder than necessary she tapped the backpack. "I've written it all down. Everything's in there. Coordinates, valuables, useless trinkets and some nick-knacks..."

"How would that all fit in there?" the Master wondered and peeked in. "Oh... bigger on the inside, I see. That's not made by Time Lords, but... mhm... not bad."

"Yeah. Take whatever you want and then give it back," Roka demanded. "And my Vortex Manipulator too."

It was clear that he hadn't awaited this turn of events. After he had discovered that he had accidentally gotten rid of Roka's glitch, he had promptly demanded payment for it. In form of hearing about every single place she had visited. Something that would have taken years. And she wasn't willing to spend even a day with him.

"How about... I take everything I want." A mean little smile played on his lips. "_Including_ the Vortex Manipulator. And you."

Roka sighed deeply and snatched her backpack out of his hands. "Well, if you're going to cheat... so can I."

The Master kept astonishingly calm. It seemed as if, without the drums, he had become a somewhat different person. The madness had vanished from his eyes, had gotten replaced by something else Roka couldn't quite name yet. But she saw that it made him probably more dangerous than ever before. And a lot more annoying.

With a slight and indefinable smile he leaned back at the console and folded his arms in front of his chest. "Bit ungrateful, aren't we?"

Roka snorted. "What do you want to hear? Thanks for murdering me? Thanks for stealing my stuff and trapping me with you?" she snapped.

"People will remember you from now on." An eyebrow raised. "Your matter stopped dissolving." He tapped a finger against his lips and glanced upwards. "You can have a normal life now. Wasn't that what you always wished for?"

"Who'd want a normal life," she mumbled, looking to the side, "when the entirety of time and space is your personal playground?"

A knowing grin was the only answer she got. Sure, who else would understand this better than him?

"Alright." Roka threw him a mean glance. "I'd probably don't get your dumb reasons anyway. But at least tell me, if you will let me leave."

That made him think for a while. He stood there with closed eyes and a slightly tilted head, as if he was listening for something. Eventually he looked her up and down, her travelling clothes, more practical than fashionable, same with her haircut. Dirt stained boots, old and worn. Her hands, again wrapped in a pair of thin black gloves.

"You said, your memory isn't working as it should anymore." He didn't even bother answering her question.

"Big surprise." She rolled her eyes. "Human brain, remember? A frozen time stream doesn't change that." Her hands clutched the backpack a bit tighter. All of those faded memories were inside it. "Seems as if I can only store so much at once before it gets overridden."

The Master turned towards the controls and typed something into a small monitor. "Shouldn't be a problem. there's a great surgeon on Shijelya. Specialized in brain augmentations." He tapped the screen and flashed a grin back at her. "Only one jump away."

"I see..." Roka hung one strap of the backpack over her shoulder and moved towards the doors that lead deeper inside the TARDIS. "Can I get my own room at least?" She waved towards the door. "Or did you have a prison cell in mind?"

For a moment the Master looked sincerely hurt at her words, and a tiny voice inside Roka told her, she was treating him unfair. But what did he even expect after all that time? People changed.

Moved on.

He straightened and shook his head. "No, of course not. Pick whatever you like."

Much later the Master found a new door appearing close to the console room. He couldn't be bothered by knocking and simply entered, curious as to what interior his unwilling guest might have chosen.

To his surprise it was a rather ordinary room. Small and filled only with a bed and a few book shelves. One other door, probably leading to a bathroom. A window, showing a Victorian looking, empty street at night. Instead of a ceiling though, a darkened sky spread over their heads, filled with uncounted, blinking stars, which filled the room with a pleasant and calm light. And on the wooden floor, surrounded by a circle of candles, sat Roka, cross-legged and with closed eyes.

She was barefooted and obviously hadn't lost her love for plaid shirts. It was weird to see her with a different haircut though. When they had separated so many years ago, she had worn a boyish pixie-cut. Now her blond hair had grown out a little and were tied to a short pony tail.

As he saw the woman like that, his hearts clenched a little. For lots of different reasons. Because he knew that all those years of travelling alone and unremembered by even a single soul in the universe seemed to have left her broken, because he hadn't lost a single thought on finding her after escaping Gallifrey, because the only reason he had started to do so, was to preserve his own timeline.

Because...

Roka slowly opened her eyes and glanced up at the Master. It didn't surprise her that he had just come in. But she did wonder why he stood there, observing her wordlessly. Their eyes met, and for a while they only glared at each other, unable to read the other one's thoughts.

"Augmenting my memory..." She rose to her feet and let the candles vanish into thin air with a gesture. They had been simple holograms. "What will that cost me?"

"Nothing." The Master blinked a few times, his eyes wandering to the star ceiling. "I'll just hypnotize the guy."

"I didn't speak of the surgeon." Roka pointed a finger at him.

Chuckling a bit the Master took a step closer, surmounting her in a menacing manner. His hand cupped her chin, made her look up at him. And with a grin he offered, "You'll stay."

Roka knew she was too slow to beat a Time Lord's speed. She also knew he wasn't prepared. This would only work once, but nonetheless she moved quickly, grabbed his hand, twisted two of his fingers, while bending his arm slightly in a certain direction. Much to her satisfaction his body reacted to this like that of any other humanoid, and a second later the Master landed with a thump on his back, utter confusion displaying on his face.

"Always wanted to do that," she remarked nonchalantly and squatted down next to him. "Kinda like you down there."

The Master glared up to her, then suddenly burst out laughing and didn't stop for a good minute, before he finally grinned widely. "Not bad, human. You really did learn some tricks." He gave her a cheeky grin and nodded to the stars. "You picked good. It's a nice view."

In one movement he was on his feet again, grabbed Roka's collar and pinned her against the next wall, faster than she could have ever reacted, even with her new gained skills. His arm was at her throat a moment later, leaving her barely any room to breathe. All the Master got in return, though, was a venomous glare and he eased the pressure slightly.

"One and a half centuries," Roka choked out. "I've got better things to do now than playing your pet."

His eyes, cold and closed off, were fixated on hers, his voice calm. "I never saw you as that. But... if you changed your mind... I can still search for a younger version of you."

The same thing he had offered outside. His TARDIS wasn't fully functional, and the only link he had been able to use to find her, had been heavily twisted by her glitch. It was possible to find her much closer to the point where he had been sucked into the time lock. However, neither of them knew if a younger version of her would be distorted enough to yield the same result. So Roka had decided not to take the risk and just leave it at that.

What she hadn't known, was that the Master would try to _keep_ her.

"Don't you too have more urgent matters to attend to? Why do you want me to stay?" Roka hissed.

His eyebrows raised and he opened his mouth as if to speak, but then closed it again, now taking at least his arm off her throat. "I... don't know," he admitted, letting it more sound like a question.

Maybe she had judged his mental state wrong. The madness might be gone, but that didn't prevent him from acting without thinking anything through.

As his grip loosened at her collar, Roka relaxed a little and her eyes softened. He must be as much overwhelmed by all of this than she was. Neither of them could have predicted this outcome. And there still was this voice in her head, reminding her of a past long gone.

A faint whisper that told her not to move, when the Master cupped the side of her face and leaned a little closer, not to resist... when their lips touched as he kissed her so slow and carefully as if she could break.

Only to flinch away from her almost immediately and take a step back.

Roka let out a breath, undecided what was going on inside her. One and a half centuries ago there would have been an answer. Now... She raised her head and looked at his indefinable gaze.

"That doesn't work," she grumbled irritated. "If that's the reason you want to keep me..."

"Err... no. That's not... Just wanted to... test something. That's it," he stammered. An awkward moment later he spun around on his heels and was about to leave the room, his hand already on the door knob, when he halted, without looking back. "Was there... anything?" he asked, his voice holding a cautiously neutral tone.

With closed eyes she listened inside her. Not even her pulse had sped up. There was just...

"...nothing," she breathed almost surprised, and watched silently as the Master left the room without saying anything else.

Furious about himself the Master kicked the control table, only to get rewarded with an indignant small electric shock. What in all of time and space had he been thinking?

Well, the answer was simple. Nothing.

The answer to _why_ he had done that was a lot more complicated. It had just... happened. He had spent so much time on his own, had closed off his hearts once more, had gotten back to who he had been a long time ago. For his own sake. Because all those years that he had followed her link he had been convinced that he would have to kill her the day they finally met.

And he had done so.

If he hadn't, his time line would have changed. With no means to control the outcome. And he wasn't willing to risk an uncertain past. For no one.

But never, not even for the fraction of a second, had he thought about the possibility that she could survive.

Not that he needed anything _else_ to bother him. Everything was weird enough without the drums. It was too quiet. Unbearably so. Some days he only wanted to scream, just to fill the pressuring silence.

For a while his fingers only tapped his old rhythm on the console, eyes closed, waiting for his mind to calm down, as it always did. Only this time the effect wouldn't settle in.

Eventually the Master stormed out of the console room and ripped the next door open, finding Roka in the same meditation pose as before, the holographic candles again lit around her. This time he noticed immediately that they didn't emit any actual light.

"Listen," he began, a lot rougher than intended, and annoyingly got no reaction at all.

Not that he knew what to even _say_. His foot started to tap four times for a good minute before he realized it and stopped. "Fine, don't answer," the Master grumbled and folded his arms, feeling anger boiling up. With a sour face he slumped to the ground, mirroring Roka's pose. He had time. And he could be incredibly patient. A lot more than any primitive ape-descendant.

His eyes closed and he breathed slowly, deeply, let his mind fall into a trance, not quite sleeping, not fully awake. It was easy to stay like that for days. Should that daft human see how to beat _that_.

A snort came from behind, who knows how much later.

"Sometimes it's really hard to believe that you have a much higher brain capacity than I," Roka's voice taunted, laced with sarcasm.

It actually was funny to see him battling a hologram of herself. She had thought about just leaving and having a bet with herself how long it would take him to notice. But she had gotten bored after a while and decided to mock him a bit instead.

The Master's head snapped up, his eyes wandering to the hologram, then to Roka, who was casually walking into his line of sight, then slumping down to where the hologram was sitting. It vanished and only left her real self, sipping coffee out of a mug and throwing amused glints at her opponent.

"Great," the Master groaned and rolled his eyes to the side. "Duped by a human."

"I'm two hundred years old. Would be a shame if I hadn't learned stuff, don't you think?"

Roka took another sip, enjoying the familiar taste. It had been years since she last had real coffee. They sat only a few centimetres apart and over her mug she took a closer look at the Master. He clearly had changed, even though it was hard to tell in what way exactly. Or hadn't he and it was only her faulty memory?

"Master..." She waited until he looked at her, still a little annoyed at being tricked like that. "Brain-Augs sound like a good idea. Bring me there."

He shifted a bit, clearly uncertain what to do or say, then reached his hands out to her head, but took them down a second later, pursing hips lips for a moment, as if this would gnaw on his dignity. "Can I... Not your memories. Only... just take a look."

Roka nodded and relaxed. There was a slight tingling on the top of her head as soon as his cool finger tips touched her temples. She peeked at him through half closed lids, how he sat there, slightly leaned forward, eyes closed and concentrated... lost.

For so many years Roka had wished to see him again, had hoped he would be able to escape the time lock and return. But time had passed, hope had faded into pain and eventually into a hazy memory. Or so she had thought. But there actually was nothing left at all inside of her.

His lids opened fully, the tingling vanished, but not his hands. And for a while they only glanced at each other, motionless, quiet.

Finally the Master let his hands sink and raised to his feet. "There's a real mess in your head. No idea if anyone can bring anything back." He reached a hand down to her. "But it should be possible to prevent any more losses."

Roka plainly ignored his hand and stood too. "So, either I keep forgetting... or I stay your prisoner for who knows how long?"

A mean grin split his lips and he chuckled. "Sounds like the sort of thing I'd force you into, yeah."

"Then at least keep me entertained." Roka sighed and rubbed her eyelids, then looked up at his smug grin. "Deal."

They entered a room that would be big, if it weren't littered with cables, components, junk and machines. There was so much stuff that the only moving figure was hard to make out. It seemed to be a male, or at least looked far from anything female. He was mostly humanoid and of average height, if he would stand on legs, that is. This species seemed to have tentacles instead and this individual was sitting on a flying hemisphere, slightly hovering up and down, while all of his six hairy and muscular arms were busy with different tools.

Subject of his attention was a vaguely humanoid looking person with green skin and big black eyes. It was strapped to an upright standing bed, limbs tied firmly. And around its head was a metal cage, holding it in space, its skull was sawn open, revealing the wet shimmering brain from within the contraption.

"Oi, Chegg!" the Master called out and the guy turned around.

One arm lead a cigar to his mouth and he examined his new customer for a moment, before he came hovering towards him. "Master?" he asked a bit unsure. His voice was raspy. "Did ya change yer face again? Ugh, really. I'm not doing this again. Piss off."

"Is that guy over there important?" The Master nodded to the green species, plainly ignoring the rough treatment.

"Nah." Chegg waved one hand. "Just salvaging some stuff from him. Why? Wanna sell me somethin'?"

"Nope." He raised his hand, now holding his laser screwdriver and aimed at the strapped alien. A second later the laser cut through its brain, leaving only a smoldering lump of flesh in its place. "You just got a more important customer."

"Aw, man! That guy was still alive!" Chegg spit disgusted to the ground. "Seriously. It's always trouble when yer'round." One of his hands poked the Master's chest. "This time ya'll pay me."

The Master chuckled wickedly and leaned forward, grabbing the hemisphere. "Look at me, Chegg." The guy did with furrowed brows. "Remember? Last time I got rid of that nest of Gijis for you. For free. You. Owe. Me."

"Nest of... yeah... right. I... I forgot." The guy rubbed his head, while taking a puff from the cigar and scratching his side with yet another hand. "How did I forget that? Mhm... whatever. What'ya want this time? Or wait... I'll clean up yer mess first."

With that Chegg hovered away and the Master snickered amused. "Are you sure, you calculated your age correctly, Roka? Right now you remind me more of that eight year old version of you I met before."

Her heart was beating violently in her throat and she didn't move a muscle, her back still pressed against the Master's, as if he were a shield. "I... d... didn't thought about this enough," she stammered out and risked a glance at the still strapped alien. "He's going to cut my head open!" she hissed panicky and turned away again.

"Well... what did you think?" He snickered again. "Stop hiding behind me. That won't help."

"B... but... my head!" She let out a shaky breath, trying to calm her pulse to no avail.

"Scared?" He sounded way too amused for Roka's taste.

"Yeah!" she squeaked out. "In opposite to you, I've only got one body! And... loo... look at this place! And that guy!"

"Seriously. Do you really think I would bring you here, if it could damage you?"

"Well... yes!" Roka countered with a voice that made clear that she thought _exactly_ that.

She felt stupid herself for being so scared all of a sudden. Over the past years she had fought literal monsters, had been in the middle of not only one war, had witnessed some horrible things in general. But the prospect of having a messy, smoking alien cut open her skull and then inserting stuff into her brain while she was wide awake?

Something brushed her gloved fingers and a moment later she felt a hand slipping into hers. A part of her wanted to tear away and yell at the Master. Instead she closed her own hand around his, and the panic actually faded slowly.

"So, what'ya need?" Chegg asked gruffly as he hovered back.

The Master tugged at Roka's hand and stepped aside, pulling her in front of him. "Ever worked with humans?"

"Mhm... few times." He rubbed his chin and flew around her. "Almost identical to kervents and larksas. Although..." One of his arms stretched out and he tapped her chest slightly. "It's risky to work on kids, you know that, right?" He looked up at the Master.

"Hey!" Roka protested and folded her arms. "I don't age, but I'm a fully grown adult and all that. Not a child!"

"Only hiding behind my back like one," the Master snickered. "Can you enhance her memory? Her capacity for remembering to be precise."

"Not aging, ey?" Chegg got out an instrument that looked like a metal stick with lights all over it. "I see. Could be a problem then. Mhm... human brains already have the capacity for unlimited memories, ya know?"

"Then why can't I..."

"Because what yer kind's lacking is the ability to properly sort and access." He was done measuring and read the results on a small tablet. "Should be easy, cm'on."

Roka hesitated, throwing a fearful glance at the contraption the other alien had stood in before. Chegg let out a laugh and one of his hands reached out to flick her head as he simultaneously blew some smoke at her face.

"Nah, that's only for salvaging old tech. This will be..." He pulled out a cannula filled with a purple substance. "...a lot easier."

"You're... not cutting my head open?" Roka asked hopefully and spun around when she heard the Master chuckle. "You knew! And still let me panic!"

"It was too funny!" He laughed and raised his hands in mock-defence.

"Gah! I swear, I'll kick you!"

"Later, kid!" Chegg's voice called out. "Let's get done with this. Ya not my only customer today."

Still sulking Roka went to the hovering alien and sat down on a small stool. Two hands grabbed her head and bent it slightly backwards. "Look up." Another hand reached for her eyelids to hold them open, while a fourth one lowered the syringe towards her eye. "Hold still. Won't hurt."

She did and tried not to think too hard about the needle in the corner of her eye. A moment later she felt a strange tingling insider her head. Only for a few seconds before it vanished and all hands let go of her. Chegg put his cigar back into his mouth, while he did something with his tablet. "I'll adjust the bots to your brain structure now," he explained. "Will cover everything in there. Yer own electric energy will feed them, won't run out. Ever. Aaand..."

"Ow!" A short zap went through her head. Not really painful, but unpleasant.

"That's it, kid. Well, almost. Will probably take a few days until the bots properly adjust. But then... whoosh!" All of his arms spread and he grinned. "No memory issues ever again. And no worries. Not magnetic, nor accessible by any foreign tech."

"Too bad," the Master remarked. "Would have been fun to hack you."

Roka gave him a mean stare, but got interrupted by Chegg, who pushed a small tablet into her hands. "There." He swiped a few times and tapped some symbols. "I'll give ya a manual. Ya can see yer brain there. Only way to interact with the bots is via a biological link." A hand knocked against the tablet. "Is inside here. Do whatever ya want with it. Can be used to store additional information and stuff."

"Wait... you mean, I can upload knowledge into my brain?" Roka cocked a disbelieving eyebrow.

"Sure. The bots have a limited capacity though. But if ya ever need some temporary super knowledge." Chegg shrugged. "Go for it."

Slowly she got up, feeling a tiny little bit dizzy. A few times she had to pinch her eyes, because her sight blurred a little, making her really hope it wouldn't take too long to adjust.

"Ey, Master!" Chegg called out, cigar in his mouth. "Ya sure about those Gijis? Somehow... I don't know, man. Haven't seen them 'round since I was a kid."

"Yeaaaahh, of course..." he said carefully and pushed Roka towards the doors. "That's err.. because I got rid of them _before_ you saw them. Now if you'll excuse us. Important things to do..."

There was only one true way to get used to an augmented brain. At least in Roka's opinion. And that was hiding behind a huge pile of books and an equally big stash of coffee and cookies. The library inside the Master's TARDIS was as impressive as the Doctor's, maybe even slightly more. It would be easy to simply vanish in here for years, and being isolated again actually calmed her a bit. Roka used to hate the loneliness her glitch had condemned her to, but over the years she had learned to value it. Life was so much easier if no one else was around. No one to take care of but herself. And it automatically erased every chance of being betrayed, used or abandoned.

Even so, the prospect of slowly forgetting her whole life had been a lot scarier than being trapped with the Master for some time. The deal didn't prevent her from isolating herself though, and it actually was nice to know she wouldn't have to seek food and a spot to sleep for a while. As much as she loved hopping through time and space, it was exhausting.

How much time exactly passed was hard to tell. The TARDIS provided her with everything she needed and the Master seemed to have decided not to bother her. There was no doubt that he knew where she was though.

Like that she once more devoured a few of her all-time favourites, followed by some krelurian sci-fi novels.

When Roka found her senses working as they were supposed to, her eyes not blurring and her sense of balance no longer betraying her, she decided that those brain-bots had had enough time to adjust to her and she finally left to take a stroll through the wardrobe, followed by a long hot shower and some proper food.

She wasn't in the mood for anything fancy, so she went with her favourite outfit. Jeans, top and some plaid shirt above it. Really, why should she be bothered about these things?

Finally Roka even decided to take a peek into the console room. The lights gently faded in and out slightly, as if the ship was actually breathing, and the familiar humming sounds of the machines filled the room. The console itself was rather neatly and tidy, and on top of it... lay her Vortex Manipulator.

Roka stepped in and took it, seeing the Master sitting on his sofa in the corner of her eyes. As she turned around, she saw he had taken the backpack from her room, and her sketchbooks lay strewn all over the place.

"Funny to see how you went from stick figures to actual drawings," the Master mocked with a grin and glanced up.

Roka looked perplex at him and, for the life of hers, couldn't prevent a short smile whizzing over her face. He looked just too ridiculous, wearing a pair of thinly framed, rectangular glasses.

"At least I didn't get short sighted," she teased back and saw amused how his eyes wandered around until he realized what she was referring to.

"Oh, those." The Master chuckled and took the glasses off. "Nicked them from some idiot. It's less staining to read with them." He shrugged and put his attention back to the sketchbook, but looked up once more to nod towards the Vortex Manipulator she was still holding. "It's fully charged," was the only thing he added, before he turned to the side a little and skimmed the pages of yet another sketchbook.

"Just like that?" Roka cocked a disbelieving brow and searched the device for possible traps or alterations.

"Why do you always think I'm scheming something?" The Master rolled his eyes, but didn't react otherwise.

"Does that _really_ need an explanation?" There seemed to be nothing wrong with the Manipulator, so she pocketed it and sauntered towards the sofa, deciding to ignore that he had simply taken her stuff. "Take whatever you want, but I'll need that backpack."

Finally he looked up, then to the bag and up to Roka, lay the sketchbook aside and reached inside the backpack to rummage around in it for a while. Roka sat on the other side of the sofa and took one of the sketchbooks, letting her eyes wander over its pages. The content was over eighty years old.

"An egg?" The Master pulled out exactly that, covered in tiny, almost golden shimmering scales. It was roughly the size of a football.

"Careful. It's a dragon."

He shot her a disbelieving glance, sat it next to him and continued his search.

"It really is. There is a space travelling species of those, get big as mountains," she reminisced. "I helped slaying one. Probably the mother of this egg. Never found out how to hatch it though."

"Slain one, eh?" With a chuckle he looked through a collection of tiny wooden totems. "I might have been there, few thousand years too late. There was one place with a giant skeleton draped over a mountain. Folks there built a whole city inside its bones."

"Really? That's... cool." Never had she returned to those places to look how things progressed. She hated the thought of everything she did eventually crumbling to dust. It made everything so... meaningless.

Her gaze fell on one of the sketchbooks. A pencil lay next to it and Roka took both up, seeing that there were new drawings on the pages. Of Chegg, taking a puff from his cigar, and of herself, sitting cross legged amidst holographic candles. She felt a sting of envy at those. Even after so many years she had never gotten especially skilled, and those drawings were almost alive. Did she really look so... empty?

"How is it?" Roka eventually asked and moved to sit next to her backpack on the floor, memories of all the things he got out of it flashing her mind. "Without the drums?"

The Master stopped rummaging and looked down to her. It was hard to tell what he thought or felt, but a short hint of anger and an even shorter one of a long gone madness crossed his eyes. He sighed and glared upwards for a moment. "Too quiet."

"Well... then I guess you still run around and try to blow everything up. You're all the same," she teased.

"Sure." A short smile whizzed over his face, vanished faster than it had appeared. "You know... there's still a universe I have to conquer, places to destroy, species waiting to get extinct. I guess... That's me, right?" He glared inside the backpack without actually looking at anything. His words, or actually more his tone, gave off the impression that he wasn't so sure about all that anymore, but he shook his head and cracked a fake smile. "Yeah, sure... all the same..."

Roka reached inside the bag and got out a small wooden box. Inside it was a single marble, deep blue in colour and filled with a swirl of glowing dots. She held it up and the green ambient light let it look as if it were full of stars.

"Found that one right at the beginning," she explained. "Nothing special, but pretty. I always imagined there is a whole universe inside. And each time I jump somewhere... who knows, maybe another star gets added." She reached out her hand and the Master took the marble from her, peeking inside curiously. "There. Now you own the universe."

It had been a joke, a bad one. Roka couldn't have predicted his reaction though. The Master stared at the marble for a moment, then at her, and slowly his features got darker until his brows were almost touching, and there was something almost bordering on hate in his eyes all of a sudden. He clenched the hand with the marble inside to a fist, then shot up and threw it away so hard, Roka could hear it bursting into shards somewhere.

"Leave," he growled and walked to the console.

"I... sorry," Roka mumbled confused and picked up her backpack.

The Master only grunted and kicked against the console, turned around and leaned against it, arms folded in front of his chest. No, it looked more as if he had wrapped them around himself. His head snapped up and he glared at her. "We won't meet again," he announced coldly. "I'll use your link to make sure of it."

"I know it was a dumb joke," Roka grumbled irritated. "No need to get so angry." She stepped to the broken marble and picked up a big shard. It was jagged and... "looks a bit like a broken moon now."

"Want to collect more _stars_ in it?" the Master huffed, again staring at the ceiling, arms still wrapped around himself. "It's no use. They will just fall out. You can't keep things inside a broken vessel."

"You could fix it." She shrugged. "Collect all the shards, make new ones." Carefully she stepped in front of the Master and tugged at his arm. To her surprise he moved and she could take his hand, placing the broken marble inside it. "Just because it's broken... doesn't mean you can't give it another chance." What did she tell there? It was such nonsense. "Maybe I should do the same," she murmured more to herself and turned away. "Continue my search for something that has meaning."

"There's no such thing as second chances." the Master grumbled and glared at the broken marble.

Roka glanced up and met his eyes, filled with a pain too deep to hide, mirroring perfectly how she felt inside. Broken and empty.

A mock of a smile curved his lips. "Do _I_ get a second chance?" He reached out both hands and cupped her face carefully, his eyes softened. "Let me at least try. I know you have no reason to..."

"Try... what?" Roka asked perplex.

"I don't know. Bring back your smile?" His thumb carefully stroked her cheek and he took back his hands. "Glue the left behind shards of you back together?"

Roka's heart clenched, it hurt and she had no idea why, so she only looked to the ground. All of time and space were waiting. People could remember her now, so she probably would never be as alone as all the time before. At least not if she would ever stop isolating herself. On the other hand was a man she knew all too well couldn't be trusted. Even if the missing drums had changed him, he was still a malicious and outright bad person.

"You don't even know how to keep yourself sane," she finally grumbled and clutched the strap of her backpack harder. "Why do you think you could fix _me_ then?"

"Fair point." The Master once more glared at the marble and his face lit up a little. Without another word he trod to one of the book shelves and pulled out a small sac, taking it back to the console. Inside was a fine powder, looking as if it were made of glass. "Found this while looking for you. Remember? Crystalline substance that reacts to your thoughts."

Roka nodded perplex, remembering the place all too well. She watched as the Master let the broken marble drop inside, then took it out again, now perfectly mended. With a wide grin he dropped it into her hands.

In the same movement he reached inside her pocket and snatched the Vortex Manipulator out of it.

"See? I _can_ fix things." He stuck out his tongue at her and grinned, but then got serious again. "Although I don't think I could help you," he admitted. "And I will hate myself for those words for the rest of my existence, believe me."

"You make no sense." Roka cocked an eyebrow and closed her hand around the small sphere. "Give back my VM."

"No. You're still my prisoner, remember?" He took a deep breath and cracked an almost pained smile. "But I think what you need... is a Doctor."


	3. I - Running from the future

For the second time Roka entered the interior of a TARDIS that was unfamiliar to her. A lot more orange and vertical than that of the Doctor's previous incarnation.

"It's cool, he? I was sooo amazed, first time I came in." Amy had followed closely, blabbering on. "Oh right! You know all that already. I can't believe you actually _lived_ here!"

"You redecorated," Roka remarked towards the Doctor. "Looks bigger."

"I don't like it." The Master wrinkled his nose and stroked a finger over the console. "Such a mess. And what's all that stuff here? My, my, no wonder you can't pilot that thing properly."

"She's absolutely fine!" the Doctor protested. "Stop mocking her!"

"And how can you be two hundred years old!?" came Amy's voice from somewhere between the chattering, completely ignoring the others.

"Frozen time stream," Roka just mumbled and shrugged.

She absolutely hated being here. Not because of the TARDIS, but because there were simply too many people, all of them talking, plus the bright lights and the machine humming. It all started to give her a headache in no time.

"You're fine?" the Master asked with raised brows. "Do those bots still make problems?"

"No..." She shook her head and glanced up. "Stop staring at me, all of you," she grumbled and folded her arms. "I'm not used to so many people around me, that's all."

"And _you_ certainly don't make it better." Amy nudged the Master with her elbow and grabbed Roka by her shoulders. "How about you show me some... I don't know... secret cool places in here, and we leave those grumps to themselves?" Meanwhile she shoved her away from them.

"Oi, who's a grump?" the Doctor whirled around with a grin and pressed some buttons, pulled a few levers. "Apart from him of course." He thumbed towards the Master, without looking up from his machines.

"Hey, don't leave me with him!" the other Time Lord called after the girls, as they vanished through a door. "Gah! Great!"

"Why... it was you, who wanted to come along." With a now more serious face the Doctor sat onto the jump seat and kneaded his hands.

He still had no clue whether or not this was a good idea. Actually, it was the worst idea he had ever given into! Maybe apart from feeding the dloyoshwak hatchlings after the president of Fehytra had invited him to a dinner party.

"You're not leaking life force anymore," the Doctor finally broke the silence.

The Master stood leaned against the console, arms crossed and glaring at the ceiling; strangely calm and a completely different sight than the mad, jumpy something he had been the last time they had met. When he finally looked down, it was as if he had to pull himself into the present moment from somewhere far, far away.

"Yah, the Time Lords fixed my body," he answered a bit absent, then added quietly, "And the drums."

Ha! So that was why he was so different. For the longest part of his life, the Doctor had been convinced the drums were nothing but an illusion. Madness induces by the untempered schism. An excuse the Master used to get away with the things he did. Through Roka he had learned that it wasn't just that. That they had tormented his former friend a lot more than he had ever known.

And then he had heard them himself.

"All of this... Rassilon, Gallifrey in the sky... for me this was yesterday, you know." A smile creped over the Doctor's face. "And I thought... new face, new life. Leaving everything behind and start from zero."

"Terribly sorry to destroy your lovely life plans," the Master sneered and rolled his eyes.

"Why are you here?"

"I told you already." He sighed irritated. "Really, your memory is horrible."

"Yes, yes." The Doctor waved his words away. "I'm not asking about Roka. Although you do have to tell me what happened to her glitch. I don't mind helping her. But what is it _you_ are doing here?" He jumped to his feet and started to pace up and down, fidgeting with his screwdriver. "Try to kill me? Boring. We had that already. Exactly two-hundred-and-eighty-three times."

"No, that can't be right." The Master grinned to himself. "Would be more like a thousand or so."

"We fought together in the war." Suddenly the Doctor halted and looked at his oldest enemy. His oldest friend. "I know you're able to forget about this feud when there's a mutual enemy to fight." He tapped a finger at the other one. "What or who is this time?"

For quite a while the Master said nothing, deeply lost inside his own mind. It was strange seeing him this calm, making the Doctor think about this drumming noise that had plagued the Master for his entire life, and that he was now absently tapping against his arm. Finally he looked up.

"The silence," was all he said.

As if he had been zapped, the Doctor shot back, but straightened hastily and tugged at his bowtie. The Master couldn't know. He was talking about the absence of the drums and not... whatever the other thing was. All of this was demanding his attention more than enough already, without having someone around he had been convinced to... to have killed.

"I'm... sorry," the Doctor uttered. "What I said out there. I didn't... never wanted you to be dead. Just couldn't believe it. It's so... so impossible. Gallifrey fell through _my_ hands. I was convinced you'd be among them..."

Irritated the Master looked to the side, tapping his rhythm with his foot, then seemingly getting aware of it and stopped.

"I can't tell you much. Even _I_ value some of our laws," he grumbled and observed the ceiling again as if it were especially interesting. "But there was a crack. Just hanging there in the air. Two pieces of time and space that should have..."

"...never touched. A crack in reality itself."

The Master looked down a bit puzzled and nodded. "I've seen something similar before, but it was only temporary and not that... strong. This crack just stayed there and probably would have forever hadn't I opened it."

"So you escaped the time lock through it?"

"I squished my TARDIS through the crack, yes. It lead outside the... place... Gallifrey was in."

Had he imagined it, or had there been a pause? What was he keeping secret? Why had he been referring to Time Lord laws? Something from the Doctor's future? But Gallifrey was so, so far away in the past...

And what exactly was wrong with the Master? He wasn't quite himself anymore, in some moments not even close to the man the Doctor had seen vanish just a day prior. Nothing was displayed on his face, but the whole way he acted... somehow the Doctor got painfully reminded of another day, so many centuries ago, and of a little scared boy, trying to stay unseen by everyone on his first day at the academy; too proud to admit his fear.

Back then, long before he had decided to call himself the Doctor, he had reached a hand out to this boy and they had become inseparable.

Maybe the Master did deserve a second chance.

"Do you have a room here? Can I see it?"

Amy practically danced around Roka, way too excited about everything to keep herself calm. Not only had her raggedy Doctor returned, she also was travelling all of time and space! And now there were two more time travellers!

"I don't want to go in there," was all Roka answered.

"Why not? Too many bad memories?"

"No... not bad ones. Just..." The girl sighed. "Did you see the library already? There is a pool inside."

"Oh right! The Doctor came crashing into my garden and peeked out the doors all wet. Told something about a pool in the library. So there really is one?"

"Most of the time, yeah. Sometimes it wanders off, but... maybe you're lucky." She shrugged and opened one of the doors.

The place was huge and there were more books than anyone could ever read. At least within a normal human life span. Somewhere also stood a sofa and a TV. There even was a gaming console, even though Amy was sure it must be newer than anything from her own time. Not that she was much into that stuff. But Roka let a long look wander over it.

"Yours?" Amy asked.

"Used to be, yes." Her eyes were a bit sad when she glanced over the setup. There it was again. Not a smile, but a glint that had the potential to become one. "Was fun letting the Master try to beat one of the hardest games of my time. He was horrible at it."

Amy snorted and laughed. "You got that guy to play videogames? That's just hilarious."

"Actually... let's go somewhere else."

Roka grabbed her arm and dragged her out of the library. By all appearance she seemed not to be too happy about those old memories, making Amy wonder what exactly was the deal between the two.

"Giiiiiiirls!" The Doctor's voice caught them before they could enter any other room. He slithered to a halt in front of the two, having a wide, adventurous grin spreading his lips ear to ear. "I have the perfect... the absolute perfect destination for all of us! Follow meeee!" He whirled around, his jacket fluttering behind him.

"Oh, finally! I hope we can see some planets!" Amy jumped up and down, grabbed Roka's arm and dragged _her_ along now.

"Let go of me," she moaned. "I'm not coming with you."

"What?" Amy gave her a no-way glance. "It'll be fun! It's always fun with the Doctor. You've been travelling all alone, say?"

"Yeah... didn't have much of a choice. Was kinda... invisible until a few days prior. And people forgot my very existence within a few minutes anyway. So..."

"Okay, _that_ sounds sad! You totally have to come with us!" Amy decided. "You're very much visible now as it seems. That's the best opportunity to go out and have adventures with us, don't you think?"

"Eh... uh... I... don't know..."

They entered the console room, finding the Doctor already standing at the doors. Alone.

"Where's that other bloke? Please tell me he got lost."

"Doubt that," mumbled Roka.

"We're not away for long," the Doctor announced happily. "Come, off with you."

He stepped outside and hopped along, followed by his two companions. One excited and only a step behind, the other more or less unwillingly sauntering along. They were in some kind of museum, as Amy quickly noticed. Not that she disliked those, but it certainly wasn't another planet.

"Ah, I love museums," the Doctor announced, pointed at different showcases, calling out things like "Wrong!" and "Oh, one of mine!"

"Let's go somewhere else! Show me some planet, a spaceship or anything. Come on, you've got two lovely girls following you. Make it worthwhile!"

"Looks more like a cathedral than a museum," Roka remarked, letting her eyes wander over the stone arches and the padded benches around. "Surprisingly ordinary for you though, Doctor."

"Oi, you two, this isn't just any museum! It's the Delerium Archive, the final resting place of the headless monks. The biggest museum ever!"

"Oh," made Amy as his rumblings suddenly made sense. "That's how you keep score, eh?"

"And he loves bragging..."

His attention got fully drawn away by some grey, rusted box, sitting in one of the showcases. Amy rushed to him to take a closer look, closely followed by Roka, who also seemed to be interested now. Both leaned their arms over the glass and glared inside.

"It's... an old box."

"It's from one of the old starliners. A Home Box," the Doctor explained.

"Oh, I heard of those. Like a black box on an airplane," Roka added, observing the strange symbols, that were engraved in it. "When a ship crashes, that thing flies home. It's practically indestructible."

"So?" What could be so intriguing about all of that?

"The writing, the graffiti. Old High Gallifreyan. The lost language of the Time Lords. There were days, there were many days, these words could burn stars and raise up empires, and topple gods."

"Could have needed those inside that creepy Lovecraft cave," Roka grumbled, letting her eyes wander over the symbols. "I thought I could read your letters, but those look so different."

"Yeah, it's not the same as the circular alphabet. It's much older and interwoven with time itself, you see?"

"And what does it say?" wanted Amy to know, horribly impatient. There had to be some mystery to this. Otherwise he wouldn't drag them to a boring place like that.

The Doctor looked up and nodded, his expression trying to stay unfazed, but showed a hint of irritation, when he cited with a slightly raised voice. "Hello Sweetie."

Amy let out a snort. "Really now? Whoa, what're you doing?"

Without further noticing her, the Doctor did something with his sonic screwdriver and a moment later the glass opened, letting him take out the cube. The very same second he did though, a blaring alarm resounded through the building.

"Run!" he called out.

Not that it needed saying. Guards were already running towards them, and the three of them were rushing towards the TARDIS. Now, that was much more after Amy's taste and she couldn't wipe the grin from her face as she ran after the Doctor and the mystery that surely was about to unfold.

"Master! Dematerialise!" the Doctor called out.

They all ran inside and he slammed the doors shut behind them. Not much later they heard the familiar sounds of the engines and the angry shouts and the banging from outside vanished.

"Really, Doctor," the other Time Lord sneered. "You should lock that thing. I could have done who knows what with it. Running off, set it on fire. Well, that would be boring. But you get my point."

"Well... Figured you'd be going nowhere as long..." he threw a look behind him and at Roka, while setting down the box and putting all sorts of wires to it. "Let's see if we can get the security playback working."

Everyone gathered around a small monitor, watching an old black and white recording of a slinky dressed woman with curly hair and sunglasses, holding a tiny gun. She looked around, slid down the glasses a bit and winked at the camera. With some tugging at one of the cables the footage jumped forwards, showing the same woman, but now surrounded by guys in suits, threatening her.

It was clear that she absolutely did not feel threatened at all though, standing there, nonchalantly, asking them if they knew what was inside their vault. Next thing she said didn't make much sense to Amy. It sounded a lot like random words and numbers. Next to her the Master typed in something to the console.

"What was that? What did she say?" Amy wanted to know.

"Coordinates. Got them," the Master said grinning. "Sounds like treasure. And danger."

The footage showed the curly woman blowing a kiss at the guys, before an airlock opened, sucking her out into space. Another thing that didn't seem to bother her at all.

Together with the Master, the Doctor piloted the TARDIS to the coordinates. Amy too wondered why he let this bloke help. It didn't seem like a good idea, even though the ship was rumbling a lot less than usual.

But there wasn't much time to think about it, as the Doctor already rushed to the doors and tore them open, holding out a hand.

And only a few seconds later the same woman from the footage slammed right into him, knocked him off his feet and landed right on top of him with a smile.

"Doctor?" Amy folded her arms in a manner that clearly told that she absolutely wanted to know what this was all about.

"River?" the Doctor remarked towards the woman.

Both got disentangled from each other and sprang to their feet, the woman demanding, "Follow that ship!" With that she rushed towards the console, followed by the Doctor and started to... actually _use_ it!

"Oh, hello deary," she remarked towards the Master. "Let me handle this."

"Don't you dare commanding me around!" he countered indignantly. "Who are you? What are you doing with the TARDIS?!"

"Not now!" the Doctor called and helped flying, obviously not bothered at all that a stranger was laying hands on his ship.

The whole interior started to shake constantly, throwing their inmates around like puppets on their wild chase.

"Use the stabilizers!" the curly one shouted.

"I don't have..."

Suddenly there was a 'dong' from the TARDIS and the shaking slowed down and halted eventually, leaving only the humming filling the now eerily silent air.

"Thank you, deary," she purred towards the Master, who had pushed a pair of blue buttons.

"But it's boring now, isn't it?!" the Doctor protested angrily. "Blue boringers! That's what I call them."

"You should use them more often," the Master grumbled. "Would yield a lot fewer bruises."

Amy finally was convinced the shaking had stopped for good and she glanced around to see if everyone was alright, before she stepped next to the Doctor, uttering through her teeth, "How come she can fly the TARDIS?"

"You call that flying the TARDIS? Really?!" He angry stormed to one the jump seats and slumped down next to Roka, sulking like a little boy for a bit, before he glanced sideways. "You're good?"

She nodded and loosened her grip from the seat. Meanwhile River and the Master did the rest. Both visibly content with the smooth flight, which probably was the only reason the blond Time Lord was so eager to help in the first place.

"Okay. I've mapped the probability vectors, done a fold-back on the temporal isometry, charted the ship to its destination, and parked us right alongside," she announced happily, giving the fascinated watching Amy some knowing smiles.

Before River got to make a single step away though, the Master grabbed both of her wrists, pushing her away from the console with an angry and slightly curious look. "Who are you?" he demanded. "How can you fly a TARDIS? An don't lie. I can smell when you do."

"No, you can't, deary," River winked and made a kissy moth. "Your psychic skills _are_ fascinating, but that's not among them."

"Oh, so you know me?" His frown turned to a wolfish grin and he leaned closer down to her. "Then you know not to stress my patience."

"Master, let her go," the Doctor said and sighed deeply. "And River... we haven't landed."

"Of course we have." And to the Master she said, "Now, listen to the boy and do what he says."

"Maybe I don't want to." he pursed his lips and looked her up and down. "You're too fascinating." He let go of her wrists, but instead wrapped an arm around her waist to draw her closer with a smug grin. "Such an interesting scent. Almost... familiar."

River once more proved to be made of a special kind of wood, suddenly lunging after the Master and slapping him hard. "We haven't met yet, can that be, deary?" she purred and took a graceful step back. "Must be. Otherwise you'd never dare to do _that_."

With only this statement hanging in the air, she left the perplex staring Master behind, who held a hand over his cheek and was looking as if his whole world had just collapsed.

Amy decided that she very much liked that woman, and judging by the look she found on Roka's face, she must think something similar. Only the Doctor still looked very much displeased.

"We can't have landed!" he demanded once more, jumped up and trod next to the woman. "It didn't make the noise!"

"What noise?"

"You know... the..." He tried to imitate the sound the TARDIS usually made when she materialized somewhere, but stopped immediately when both Amy and River gave him weird looks.

"It's not supposed to make that noise," River argued. "_You_ leave the breaks on."

"What are you talking about?" came the Master's angry voice from behind, when he stepped closer, glaring hateful daggers at the woman. "Every TARDIS does that. You probably broke something, you barmy ape."

Hastily he ducked away when River lunged out at him once more, making him retreat to the jump seat and dropping down in it, somewhat defeated.

"Can't say you didn't deserve that," Roka remarked nonchalantly from the side, earning herself a murderous glare.

"It's a brilliant noise. I love that noise," the Doctor whined, then put himself together again. "Anyway, Come along." He waved into the room. "Let's have a look."

Very hastily and a bit rougher he stepped past River and tore the doors open before she could, poking his head outside to take in a deep breath. "Alfava Metraxis, the seventh planet of the Dundra System. Oxygen rich atmosphere, all toxins in the soft band, eleven hour day and chances of rain later," he announced with a slightly smug undertone in his voice.

"He thinks he's so hot when he does that." River chuckled towards Amy.

She smiled back, but almost burst out of curiosity, "Seriously though, how come you can fly the TARDIS?"

River shoved the monitor aside and winked at the younger woman. "Oh, I had lessons from the very best."

"Well, yeah," the Doctor said, still having the smug smile when he came back and leaned against the banister.

"It's a shame you've been busy that day," the curly woman remarked distinctively and took down her shoes she had hung over some controls during the flight. She smiled again at Amy and nodded towards the doors. "Right then, why did they land here?"

"They didn't land," the Master grumbled from his seat.

"Sorry?"

"You should have checked the home box. It crashed," the Doctor explained.

He followed closely, but as soon as River stepped outside the doors he only slammed them shut, leaning his back against them. Amy couldn't stop glaring at him, following him with her eyes when he went back to the console.

"Explain!" she finally demanded. "Who is that and how did she do that museum thing?"

"Yeah, Doctor," the Master chimed in gruffly. "I think you owe us some talking."

"Ugh, no! It's horribly long story and I don't know most of it. Off we go." Frantically he typed in new coordinates and pulled a few levers.

"What are you doing?" Amy rushed to his side.

"Leaving of course." He pulled another lever, ignoring her demanding glare. "She's where she wants to go, let's go to where _we_ want to go."

"Running away, eh?" the Master stood and stretched, treading next to the two and leaning at the console with folded arms. "What would make you run from someone like that?"

"Could you... all leave me alone with that?" the Doctor begged and ruffled his hair.

"No. Why are you running?" Amy wanted to know.

"Because... she's the future," the Doctor gave in, rambling fast. "_My_ future, to be precise."

"You can't run away from that." The Master chuckled meanly. "Believe me, I tried."

"I run away from whoever I want! Time is not the boss of me!"

The look the Master gave the other Time Lord was telling enough, but no one said another word, until Amy finally remembered something.

"Hang on, is that a planet out there?"

"No, we're hovering over a tiny rock that is equipped with a high technology processor, tricking us all with a giant hologram of a planet," the Master mocked and rolled his eyes.

"I didn't ask you, creep." Amy shot him a mean glance, then whirled back around to the Doctor. "You promised me a planet. Five minutes?" Excitedly she hopped on the spot, biting her own fist.

"Yeah, please bring that annoying ape out for a while," the Master groaned.

"Okay, okay... five minutes," he finally gave in and called after Amy when she sped away faster than a cat spotting a mouse. "But that's all! Cause I'm telling you now, that woman is not dragging me into anything!"

With that the doors slammed shut, leaving the Master and Roka back inside. After all that ruckus there was now an uncanny silence. Roka rubbed her forehead, feeling a bit dizzy and wishing back the days of travelling alone and in peaceful quietness.

"Don't want to go after them?" a voice asked, making her realize that she wasn't alone in here.

"Ugh nooo," she moaned and buried her face in her hands. "They make too much noise."

The Master chuckled agreeing. "Well, no one says we have to follow them. We can have our own little adventure out there."

"Only adventure I want to have right now is an Aspirin," Roka grumbled, massaging her eye lids.

Finally she looked up and saw a small red spot on the Master's cheek, where River had slapped him. He was running a finger over the spot, looking as if he was in a good mood to go after her for some revenge. The sight made a small chuckle escape from Roka. She simply couldn't help it.

"Now, _that_ makes you laugh?" the Master let out irritated and he sulked for a bit, suddenly looking more like a pissed teenager than a millennia old alien who had claimed evilness as his domain.

"Yeah, it's quite amusing to see you getting what you deserve, for once." Roka stuck out her tongue at him.

She somehow liked this River person. It happened seldom that someone was so blunt, witty and somehow cool at the same time. And the fact that she had slapped the Master was a huge bonus point as well.

He only grunted and tapped his foot four times repeatedly before he finally pushed himself away from the console to march towards the doors. "Whatever. Not going to rot in here."

Roka glared at the doors for a while, undecided whether or not to leave too. And if she did, whom to follow, if anyone at all. Now that she wasn't invisible anymore they surely would wait for her, in case the others would return earlier. And it was clear that they already had found some distraction, since the promised five minutes had long passed.

Well... there was nothing to gain from sitting around. She might as well take a peek.


	4. Bonus - One reason to spare earth

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is a completely optional bonus chapter. The timeline makes no sense and... whatever... it was only a funny idea and I had to write it. So enjoy ;P  
The regular next chapter will be out on Sunday. x3

It was a usual day in the TARDIS - as usual as they get at least - and the Doctor had taken a bit of time off to repair a few parts on his console. Roka had been eager to help and had promptly turned into a pair of feet that were now sticking out from below the terminal, while the Doctor called out instructions and reached down tools from time to time, while fixing another part nearby.

"So..." Amy leaned against the banister, next to the Master, who had sat down in one of the jump seats to read some book. "Not eager to help with the repairs? You could manipulate quite a lot."

"Nah. That one's unskilled enough to botch everything on his own. And humans..." He shrugged, not looking up from the pages. "I never let her lay hands on the TARDIS, that's for sure."

"You should have," the Doctor called out. "She was a great help back then. Kinda miss having my own janitor."

"At least we wouldn't be stuck being bored, if you had one," Amy sighed. "Where are we right now?"

The Doctor's head appeared, tousled and a bit dirty. "Uh, should be... 2018, London. Want to go out a bit?"

"Yeah, better than staying in here. And I can try out one of those Smart Phones I got the last time. I heard they are some kind of pocket computer."

On their last trip they had been gifted a bunch of those as a thanks, because they had gotten rid of an infestation of the equivalent of alien cockroaches when they had been visited a random local store. So everyone of them now had one, even though Amy had found out they were quite useless without internet connection.

Next to her the Master closed his book and rose to his feet, yawning and stretching and throwing a glance at Roka's feet. "Good idea. I'll take stroll too."

"Just try and... don't kill anyone, okay?" the Doctor pleaded with big eyes.

"Better, Doctor... way better. I'll get some garish pink dress for you. Fitting for your girly whining."

"Oi! At least I'm not sulking like a toddler all the time!"

Amy let out an exasperated sigh and left them, not willing to endure that bickering today. When she returned, all repairs seemed to be done. The Doctor and Roka sat together in the library, reading, and the Master still hadn't returned, making Amy wonder - and maybe hope a little - if he really was out to get a dress for the other Time Lord.

Hours and hours went by, before he finally returned, his eyes fixated on the display of one of the smart phones. He only mumbled some vague 'hello' when he recognized the others, then slumped down on a reading pillow, still completely captured by his new toy.

The next day they argued where to go next. Roka wanted to visit the sea, the Doctor suggested an asteroid belt and Amy wanted to try out alien food somewhere. Since the Master had been the only one to keep out of the argument, they all stared at him now, as if awaiting the decision to come from him.

"If I get to decide..." He scratched his beard and pretended to ponder. "Earth. Somewhere from 2018 or 19 or so... I don't care about where, as long as it's a city."

They all blinked perplex at him, but since they couldn't decide on anything they decided to pick Roka's choice and visit an area that was near the sea and also close to a city. The group split, leaving the Master wandering on his own. It seemed as if he wasn't doing any harm, judging from his uneventful last solo-trip.

Again, he returned last, and again he demanded to visit earth the next day. And the next. And each time they weren't able to decide where to go.

"Alright, Master," the Doctor eventually snapped, fists stemmed into his sides. "What in the name of the Vortex are you planning with earth?"

Surprisingly enough for everyone he looked sincerely shocked about this accusation and was at a loss for word for a few seconds, before his eyebrows knitted together. "I enjoy being there. That's all." He shrugged. "I see now why you like that dumps... lovely planet so much, Doctor. It's really nice there and all that. Can we go now?"

They did. Even though only to pretend they wouldn't be interested in the whole ordeal anymore. Of course the Doctor had other plans though and left the girls on their own, while he went stalking on the Master for a bit.

This evening Amy and Roka had to wait for a very long time for the two Time Lords to return. And when they did, neither responded to any questions, except for vague answers that didn't answer anything at all.

Even worse was, that they now visited earth each day. Always inside the same time range, but different countries. Exclusively cities though.

Almost a week of this went by when Amy nudged Roka one day, while they were eating ice cream and strolling through a summerly park. "You think the two... you know..."

"Know what?" Roka had no idea what Amy might mean.

"Eh, I don't know. It seems so unlikely, but... they are out on their own rather often at the moment. And they seem to be... quite happy together."

Now that Roka thought about it, there was a certain truth to these words. It was, of course, nice that they weren't fighting so much anymore, but it was weird nonetheless.

"And then the whole _'Last of the Time Lords'_ thing," Amy continued. "I mean, they are the same species after all. And remember when the Master said he likes gingers? And the Doctor always complains about never regenerating into one, and then there's..."

Roka stopped dead in her tracks, turning to her companion with a dumbfounded look. "Wait... are you suggesting the two..."

"...date? Yes... yes I do." She smiled widely. "Come on, this whole hunting each other through time and space for centuries and never killing each other, even if they have the absolute best opportunities? I bet they just... like each other, and never were brave enough to admit it."

"I... really don't know. The thought alone is weird. I can't really imagine it."

"So?" A mischievous glint sprang to her eyes. "And why do they always look so content, when they come back?"

"Oh please, Amy! I really don't want to imagine any of that!" Roka groaned and pinched her eyes together to get the thought out of her head.

The other woman chuckled and grabbed Roka's arm. "Let's find out tomorrow. I bet they'll come here again."

"Noooo! No, no and so much no! If it's anything the like I absolutely don't want to run into them!"

But Amy proved to be relentless in her endeavors, dragging the unwilling Roka with her the next day, after the Time Lords had vanished to who knows where again. Only this time the women had stayed nearby, following with a good distance, but never losing them out of sight.

And this sight was very peculiar indeed.

Both of them were equipped with their newly gained smart phones, and apparently also a powerbank, judging by the cables that stuck out of their pockets. Their eyes were constantly glued to their screens, making people evade them oftentimes with an eye-roll or some - not so friendly - comment. Here and there the two stopped for a while, sometimes pointing at each others screens, sometimes laughing about something, other times looking disappointed.

They did this the whole day, only stopping here and there to get some snack or drink - mostly due to the Master hypnotizing someone behind the Doctor's back. Nothing else happened though. Also not during the next two days. When the Time Lords returned this time, they found Amy and Roka leaning with folded arms against the blue box and both hastily let their smart phones vanish.

"Something wrong?" the Doctor asked with an innocent smile.

"You could say that," Amy begun, nodding to his pocket in which the device had vanished. "Not that I mind you two having some fun together, but what the heck is so important and time consuming that we can't have adventures anymore?!"

"Nothing!" he exclaimed, throwing a help seeking glance at the Master.

"And none of your damn business," he grunted. "If you're bored, go home."

Roka shook her head and glinted mischievously. "Then she will probably continue to assume you two became a couple."

"What?!" the Master shrieked. "Why the everlasting hell would you-"

"And she thinks you do... you know... have fun. Privately," Roka continued nonchalantly, enjoying the two dropping faces and the shocked and disgusted looks the two shared.

The Doctor raised both hands in defense. "Noooo! Nothing not even close to the like!"

"Never ever!" the Master spat out and wanted to tear out his smart phone, only to find that Roka had already pick pocketed it from him. "Oi, you imp! Give that back!"

"Noooope!" She evaded his grip and dug into his apps. "What the heck are you installing there?"

"What is it?!" Amy demanded to know.

"Eh, something about Teletubbies... But I think..." She evaded him once more and stuck out her tongue. "I found the culprit." With that she threw the phone to Amy, the same moment the Master finally manage to catch her, his arm around her throat and squeezing way too hard, while his eyes were now fixated on the other woman.

"You're choking me," Roka croaked out, tugging at his arm.

He let go immediately, but the short time had be enough to elicit a loud laugh from Amy. "Oh my gosh! You two can't be serious!"

"Oi! Don't laugh!" the Doctor whined. "It's a fun game! You have to catch all those little, funny creatures! Polekmore or something like that."

"They're called Pokémon, Doctor," the Master grumbled, glaring daggers at Amy. "And he is totally obsessed with catching every single Psyduck on the planet. We have to stop every single time one-"

"You have to talk! You want all the ghosty things all the time! And don't forget how long we were looking for that Meowth!"

Meanwhile Roka had stepped next to Amy, observing the Pokémon GO screen that showed countless critters he had caught during the last days.

"I still can't believe it," Amy muttered dumbfounded.

"Well... but I guess we could agree that there is some serious _bromance_ going on at least," Roka teased, throwing a look at the disgusted Master, who now took several steps away from the equally displeased looking Doctor.

And this was the end of the story. Almost.

From there on they went on adventures again. But each time they visited earth, the two Time Lords vanished from time to time. Never again together, but long enough to raise suspicions. Roka and Amy only grinned at each other then, but let the two have their fun.

"Well..." Amy remarked one day. "At least the Master now has at least one reason to spare earth."

"Mhm... No. I think he's developing a Pokémon Universe already. I sneaked into his room recently to steal some chocolate, and the stuff on his monitor clearly was code for connecting to intergalactic servers."

"No way!"

"Oi! It was _you_ stealing my chocolate! That was the last bar from Grokjarik!" the Master protested, obviously having overheard the conversation. "And it's absolutely none of your business what I program!"

"Can I design new Pokémon?" Roka asked. "I'd have some cool ideas."

The Master threw some careful glances around, then an impish grin stretched his lips. "But don't tell the Doctor about it! He's not going to get a single penny from my profits!" He waited until Amy had sauntered off to get something to drink for them, before he added. "And when the whole universe is addicted to the game... I'm going to implement some mind control into the code."

Roka let out a sigh. "Of course you will." But then she gave him a conspiratorial glance. "Can I get a version without when it's done?"


	5. I - The angels' tomb

"Ahhh, humans!" the Master remarked snarky when Roka followed outside. "Look there. An ancient temple, last remnant of an extinct species... and your kind ruined it."

"Well, if it weren't them, it would be you." Roka sighed and took a closer peek at the crashed ship.

It lay ungraciously on top of a gigantic stone structure, spreading fire through the broken walls, and some smaller debris lay strewn on the dried out ground. There also was a strong wind constantly swirling dust through the air, almost covering the fast setting sun.

The air was rather chilly, making her wish she had taken a jacket along. That actually might not be a bad idea, so she returned to get one from the wardrobe. Back outside the sun had already set, even though she hadn't been gone for ten minutes. Now that she moved around the TARDIS she also saw soldiers running around. Did they belong to River? And where had they come from? There was no too obvious answer for now, but a few of them were now talking to the Doctor and the women. The Master was nowhere to be found.

Roka sauntered towards the makeshift camp, making sure to catch some snippets here and there. They talked about angels, statues and catacombs that might lead towards the temple on top of the mountain.

Now, that sounded interesting. But she wasn't quite fond of the idea to follow the Doctor and his rather annoying companions around, plus the fact that all the soldiers could _see_ her.

Did people always look at each other that much? It definitely felt strange and unpleasant. Sure, she did have a coat that had enabled people to see and remember her as long as she was in their line of sight. But even that had required them to get at least somewhat aware of her first, and not just... look.

Getting used to the missing glitch definitely would take a good amount of time. Enough reasons to make her decided to explore those catacombs on her own instead. She snatched a flashlight from a table nearby.

And again forgot about being visible. Promptly someone grabbed her arm as and yanked her back a little.

"And what do you think, you're doing?" River asked and looked her up and down. "Wait... you were in the TARDIS. Are you with the Doctor too?" A weird look crossed her face. "It's as if I know you... but the memory just... slips."

"Uh... I don't think we ever met. And yes, I am with them right now. Let me go." Roka tugged at her arm, but the curly one didn't think of obeying.

"And do what? Running around on your own?" River cocked a disbelieving brow, then squinted at her. "I _do_ know you. We have met, I'm certain of it. That's weird."

Roka really wasn't in the mood to explain her glitch to that annoying woman, but those words made her curious. If they would really meet again, it must be in the future. Did that mean she would actually stay with the Doctor?

Speaking of which, he was calling out to River now, waving around with a book of some sorts.

"Comming, sweetie!" she called out, then turned to Roka once more and quickly stung her with a small needle, injecting something into her arm. "You'll run off anyway, won't you? That stuff at least protects your from radiation and stuff around." With a last roguish wink she rushed to the Doctor.

Perplex Roka rubbed the spot where the needle had stung her, even though it didn't actually hurt. It was hard to decide if she might end up ever liking River or not. But she knew there was no way she would let herself be dragged along with the others. Instead she strolled around the mountain for a bit, waiting for everyone to vanish through a hole in the stone wall nearby. And only after an even longer while had passed after that, did she follow slowly.

It was horribly dark inside, making the flashlight illuminate almost nothing, and the way into the depths of the mountain feel like moving right into the belly of an ancient beast. Without seeing much, time was hard to grasp and it felt like an eternity had passed before Roka finally reached a bigger cave. Inside it a light-sphere was hanging high above her head in the air, illuminating probably thousands of statues, standing around everywhere.

Roka turned around herself to take a proper look at everything, amazed by how detailed the statues were and by how old this place must be.

"Two heads..." a voice nearby mumbled.

Roka spun around and sighed in relieve and also somewhat annoyed when she found the Master stepping out of a sideway, glaring at a small tablet in hands and mumbling to himself. He stopped when he got aware of Roka and looked at her as if he wasn't quite sure what to say. But a moment later he caught himself again and flashed her a grin.

"Fascinating, isn't it? The Aplans built this place and buried their workers inside the walls." He knocked against one of these. "I wonder if they hid some of their tech in there as well."

"Because you want to steal it? Or just eager to blow the whole place up and see what rolls out?"

"Tempting, really..." The Master scratched his beard and glared at his tablet again. "But what's far more interesting... Aplans were a two-headed species. And this is a burial, a sacred temple."

"So?" Roka followed as he walked up some slopes. "Think they have more treasures then?"

He chuckled lightly and shook his head. "Well, maybe. But look around." While talking he produced his laser screwdriver from his pocket and aimed it at one of the statues. One shot later it burst into pieces and dust, followed by a few of its comrades. Some of the statues, though, only lost a few splinters, other stayed completely unharmed. "Tell me, Roka, have you gotten dumber since we last met?"

She snorted. "Quite the opposite, I hope. But I'm rather certain you will enlighten me with how much more intelligent your superior head is."

"That's not open for debate." He snickered, halted and waved a hand through the cave. "Still. Look. Tell me, what's wrong with this place."

She did for a while, unsure what exactly she was even looking for.

"The statues are placed weirdly," she started, carefully moving between a bunch of them that stood in the middle of the way. "They all wear the same clothes... Some of them break when you shoot them and some don't..."

"Yes, yes, that's the obvious. Come on, you're better than that," he mocked.

Roka sighed, mildly annoyed. "How about the fact that _you_'re here and haven't gotten eaten by something already?" she grumbled.

"Wrong." The Master simply ignored the jibe, but his voice couldn't completely hide a tad bit of anger. "Sure those nano-bots did adjust properly?"

Some steps later he halted, held up his tablet and then aimed his screwdriver at a wall nearby, letting it shoot a long, consistent beam that broke away several layers of bridling stone. It seemed to be an especially thin part of the mountain, since shortly after a gust of wind blew inside. The Master punched his fist against the stones to widen the hole.

"They only have... one head," Roka realized suddenly, shining her flashlight around. "Err... Master?"

"Exactly! See, not so dumb after all."

"Master..." Roka tried to get his attention, but he was way too eager to break the stone. "I think they move. That one over there definitely was a few centimetres to the left just a moment ago."

Right as she realized that, Roka also saw that several of the statues had turned their head while the light of her flashlight could illuminate only a few at once. That really was creeping her out. And it definitely wasn't imagination either. She tested it with one, moved the light slightly away and then back a second later to find the face had turned towards her now.

"Of course they do! Should have realized it sooner. Don't stop looking at them and come here."

"What? Why?" Roka wanted to instinctively turn around, but instead kept her eyes and light on the statues. "I can't look at all of them. And they change position when I don't."

"Yes, dammit! Now _move_!" he shouted.

It didn't happen too often that she was afraid. Apart from the suspect of having her head cut open and the chance of getting... whatever those things would do to her, should she stay... those were two of them. Carefully she took step after step backwards until an arm wrapped around her torso. For once she didn't struggle and let the Master lead her outside the newly created hole in the wall.

Wind violently tore at them as they exited the catacombs to a small plateau outside. The Master let go of her and Roka sighed relieved, but when she blinked, there suddenly was a bunch of grey stone hands sticking outside the hole, reaching after them with clawing fingers. She stumbled back and bumped against the Master, who lay a hand on her shoulder and raised his laser screwdriver past her head.

A loud bang reverberated through the ground as another laser beam hit the wall above the hole, letting a small cascade of stones collapse in front of it, burying the statues.

"Oh shit." Roka suddenly felt a bit shaky and let herself sink to her knees with a sigh. "What the hell were those?"

"Weeping Angels. Nasty fellas. I never encountered them myself before. But there are stories..."

With his tablet held out the Master studied their surroundings for a while. They hung several hundred meters above the ground, making it impossible to get down again unscathed.

"We have to get higher. The others are probably at the ship already... You're okay?" he asked carefully, stepping next to her and reaching a hand down.

Roka only nodded, ignored his hand and got up. "What's a weeping angel? That was totally creepy. And I mean the _bad_ sort of creepy."

With a mean chuckle the Master reached inside his jacket pockets and produced a rope that was definitely far too long to fit inside. He also got out some picks, handing a bunch of them to Roka. Next thing he got out some kind of frisbee-sized drone, tied the rope to its bottom and controlled it with his tablet, flying all the way up until it reached a sturdy boulder, flew a few times around and clamped itself between two smaller rocks. A few rough tugs later the Master started to climb up, not looking back or checking if Roka followed at all.

She waited for a bit to make sure the rope would actually hold him, then also grabbed it and carefully set foot after foot. Like that they left the plateau behind them, climbing higher and higher into vertiginous heights. Roka made sure not to look down, too aware that they didn't have any security. At that height a fall would probably even be deadly for a Time Lord.

She learned fast why they needed the picks. The wind was so strong that it was almost impossible to simply climb the rope like that. Instead they were using natural holes or those they made with the picks to get a sturdier hold. Still, the way was exhausting and dangerous beyond believe.

Eventually the Master reached the top and heaved himself up, taking a good look around and at the crashed ship nearby, plainly walking out of sight.

Roka had to pause for a moment, ramming one pick into the stone to stand on it for a bit. All the years of travelling had trained her quite well, but climbing hadn't been exactly among the things she had done too often. And hanging there all alone made her remember why, especially after her gaze fell downwards and a rush of dizziness overcame her.

She continued her way, more careful than before, until the edge finally was in reach. Right as she wanted to breathe a sigh of relieve, some stone crumbled away below her foot, and in surprise one of her hands let go of the rope, leaving her dangling and finding no halt. Wind tore at Roka and instinctively she glared down, almost fainting from the sight of those unimaginable depths below her dangling feet.

There was a sudden jolt at the rope, then her arm got grabbed with two hands and a moment latter she found herself being dragged over the edge, landing next to the Master on the ground, before she could even begin to properly panic.

A bit puzzled she glanced up, surprised that he was still here.

"What?" he grumbled irritated. "Thought I'd leave you there?" He shot up and glared down at Roka with furrowed brows. "One day you really have to tell me what I did to you to distrust me that much all of a sudden."

"One day _you_ need to tell _me_ why anyone should trust you of all people in the first place."

She got up and roughly walked past him and towards the ship. None of the moving statues were around, so they must be still inside the caves and tunnels. Hopefully the ship was safe. And hopefully there was a way down from there.

"You used to." The Master stepped next to her, gesturing in a certain direction, where the ground hadn't been broken down completely.

Roka wasn't willing to dignify him with an answer and only grumbled something inaudible.

Silently they climbed over debris and rocks, jumped over holes in the ground and had to take some detours to get over particularly big gaps. Once Roka peeked down one of those and saw a big group of statues, placed in a way as if they were moving in a certain direction. Lots of them also weren't those crumbling things anymore, but were now well defined and also had wings on their backs.

"I have a hunch," the Master said when they reached the hull, looming over them like a foreboding, sleeping metal giant. "They might use the wrack's power. That's why they all move towards it... probably."

His laser screwdriver cut open a few panels, until he seemed to have found the right one, drawing out cables and rewiring them. Then he hurled around to the silently watching Roka and grabbed her collar, drawing her almost against him with a mean glare.

"I really don't care what your daft human mind spun together about me in the last years." Slowly he leaned down, anger radiating from him as he fixated her eyes. "But I'm _not_ letting you die. Not as long as I have even a hint of control over it, is that clear?"

"Why would you?" Roka glared back, giving him her meanest stare. "And I'm very much capable of taking care of myself." She tore at his hand until he pushed her away, making her stumble a few steps back.

"Are you? Didn't look like it so far," he spat out. "But this is not the time, nor the right place to scorn me. So listen!" he demanded and took a step towards her. "Those things in there are among the most dangerous life forms you will ever encounter. They turn into useless stone as long as there is an observer nearby. I trust you to know at least the basics of quantum physics. So don't. Take. Your. Eyes. Off."

"Okay, okay. Cool down." Roka raised her hands in mock defence and went back to the hull. "What happens when they reach me?"

"Well, usually... they displace you in time and feed on the possibilities you leave behind. Also distort the time around you so badly that no TARDIS can reach you."

"That... doesn't sound too horrifying actually. I can built a Vortex Manipulator from scratch and..."

"Doesn't matter," the Master grumbled. "Those in there are starved. They won't wait for your energy to slowly sicker into them. They'll feast on you immediately."

With that he turned to the control panel once more, wiring some more cables together.

"Do you have another of those drones?" Roka pondered, deciding to leave their fight be for now. "Maybe smaller ones."

"Yeah. Why?"

"Just an idea. If this is a quantum lock, then it doesn't matter what observes them as long as there is a consciousness behind it. I could reroute the signal from one or more drones directly into my visual cortex and use my additional bot-storage to process the input."

Slowly the Master turned around, looking surprised. "That's... not even a bad idea." He rummaged around in his pockets and handed her three drones the size of golf balls. They looked like miniature Toclafanes.

Roka took them and got out the small tablet Chegg had given to her. It wasn't hard to use and only a few minutes later she had not only control over the drones, but also got their images transmitted.

"Ugh, weird..." She blinked a few times and pinched her eyes. "That sounded more useful in my head."

"What's wrong?"

"My perception of reality. I mean... I'm not used to having 360° vision, you know? It's... err... I'll need a bit to get used to that. Or maybe I can somehow crop the output. I don't have to see the entire angel after all." She tried different things, until at least the dizziness vanished. It still was weird to see a lot more than usual though, but for now she had no choice but to deal with it.

She nodded. "Alright. I think we can go."

The drones rose into the air and placed themselves next to her head in a regular pattern, like small guardians, when the Master suddenly chuckled.

"Remember? You build a similar one yourself once. Wanted to spy on me with it."

"Hey! I never told you what I wanted to use it for!"

"Come on. That was so horribly obvious." He snickered, kicked in the half opened metal door and peeked inside. "Funny how you never took me serious. Even after poisoning you. And no, I still don't regret that."

"Surprise," Roka grumbled and followed inside some round metal corridors. However, the memory moved something inside her. It was an almost nostalgic feeling, something only a human mind could produce after so many years. "At least I tricked you nicely. You should have seen your panicky face."

"Pfff, you wish. Just wasn't nowhere near done toying with you."

He halted and stretched a hand out, putting a finger in front of his lips. There were voices coming from nearby. Maybe from another corridor. It must be the others. At least Roka really hoped they were okay.

The Master lasered open yet another panel, making a door in front of them slide open. Immediately they got greeted by a shriek and two people simultaneously spinning around towards them. It were River and the Doctor, who had lost his jacket somewhere along the way.

"Tadaa! Your Lord and Master comes to the rescue!" the Time Lord announced, slipping inside the room with a grin and stretched out both hands. "Oh, at least _pretend_ to be happy about seeing me. And no! I've got nothing to do with all..."

"I know," the Doctor interrupted hastily. "Tell us later. Now we need to get the others here. Quick. River, forget that teleporter, it's dead!"

The woman rolled her eyes and didn't even think about ceasing her attempts with the cables. "The angels are fast. This might be our only chance. Master, deary, could you help?"

"Err..." He seemed to be a bit flabbergasted at being asked so nicely, but then went to River to take a look at the machine.

Roka stepped to the Doctor, who was now testing a communicator. "Amy, Amy, is that you?"

"Doctor?" came her voice, almost in tears from happiness about hearing him.

"Are you alright? Are the clerics with you?"

"They're gone." She sounded slightly distorted through the radio. "There was a light and they walked into it. They didn't even remember each other."

"No they wouldn't..."

"What is that light?" River asked.

"Time running out. Amy I made a mistake, I should never have left you there."

"Wait," Roka broke in. "She's all alone out there with those things?"

"Yes. And I'll bring her back. Amy, you hear me? Trust me, I'll bring you back," the Doctor implored.

"Tch, what a waste of energy. Let's just bolt." The Master cut open some metal and tore out a bunch of wires. "Let the angels have a snack, while we're running off."

"Charming as ever, deary," River remarked sarcastically.

He just snorted. "She's not important. So it's none of my business."

"Mhm..." The curly woman pushed a few buttons to see if the teleport was functioning, but it still didn't budge. "The Doctor might be right. Those are completely dead."

"See?" The Master reappeared from under the machine and pocketed his screwdriver with a mean grin. "Waste of time. We can just vanish the same way we came in."

"Alone?" There was a glint in River's eyes he absolutely didn't like.

"Yes, alone!" he sneered. "Bohoo, poor little ginger ape gets eaten. So what? I didn't like her anyway."

"No, obviously." She smiled. "But you seemed rather fond of the other girl. And she apparently _does_ care."

The Master whirled around, scanning the room with his eyes, but only found the Doctor rambling through the communicator. Roka was gone. "Dammit! What does she even think?!"

Hastily he climbed out the small scuttle and found himself inside a forest. Only then did he remember the angels, but there was no need for fear. Roka had climbed out only now and still stood among the trees, surrounded by the drones. He caught up to her, but made too much noise and alarmed her.

"Don't dare to stop me!" she demanded and stormed off. "I swear, touch me and I deactivate the drones."

Satisfied she saw the Master pull his hand back and ignored whatever he was rambling to hasten through the eerie forest. Angels peeked out from behind trees, stood right in their way or were lurking in shadows with stretched out claws and angry faces. If it hadn't been for the drones, their two pair of eyes would have never been enough to keep them at bay. And even with the tech, some of them were able to sometimes catch a moment and inch a few centimetres closer.

Luckily it only took a few minutes to find Amy, slowly stumbling through the undergrowth, the communicator almost pressed against her mouth. Behind her an eerie white light shone through the forest, slowly creeping nearer.

"Amy!" Roka called out. "Stay still, we're here." She ran towards the other woman and took her hand. "Why are you running around blind?"

"There is an angel in her eye!" the Doctor's voice called out from the communicator. "She mustn't open them! And why are _you_ there?!"

"Yes, why are you? What about the angels?" Amy was close to collapsing from fear.

"I... I've got this," Roka reassured and glanced around to make sure she was telling the truth.

Several angels stood all around them, arms stretched out, toothy mouths wide open. They looked like creatures straight out of a horror movie. But with the drones... Her flashlight flickered for a second, and a moment later the images from said drones did too.

"She's just slowing us down!" the Master protested angrily and grabbed Roka's shoulder. "Back! Now!"

She spun around and pushed him away with both hands and the force of anger. "I'm not leaving her to die here!" she called out. "Piss off, if your own ass is so important. Hush, go! We all know you have no problems with abandoning people."

Rage was threatening to overwhelm her for a moment, but vanished immediately when the images flickered once more. Shortly after two drones dropped to the ground, dead. She stared at them, then hastily turned around to cover with her own eyes what the remaining drones couldn't.

The angels had crept closer.

"Behind me!" the Master commanded and shoved Roka to the side. "Keep an eye out in that direction."

"I'm not leaving Amy behind!"

"Yes, yes. I get it," he grumbled and reached out for Amy's hand. "Come here, matchstick. Careful. Don't panic."

She gave off a small shriek when the Master promptly scooped her up his arms and started to walk back to the others with her, Roka behind them, following closely. They couldn't move too fast, because she had to walk backwards to keep a constant eye on the angels. To their luck they still were slow and week, so blinking enabled them to come closer, but not completely catching up.

"I could totally walk," Amy protested after a minute. "Let me down, creep."

The Master chuckled. "Oh, you should rather be grateful. Thanks to me you will live. Probably. I think that actually makes you owe me something."

"Yeah, right," she mocked. "I can kick your butt, how about that, dear saviour?"

"Mhm... not nice. Doesn't the hero get a kiss or something the like, usually? You're quite in a good position for that, actually." He chuckled again.

"Don't you dare to..." Roka called out.

"What? Jealous?" he teased.

"Certainly not. But don't you dare taking your eyes off the angels!" she grumbled.

"Yes, that'd be a great," Amy seconded pleadingly.

The communicator crackled, letting the Doctor's troubled voice through. "Guys, you can't get back in."

"Thanks, Doctor Obvious. I see it."

A small army of angels had gathered in front of the now open door to where the Doctor was waiting with River. Then another voice simultaneously came through all communicators.

"The time field is coming. It will destroy our reality." It was a young, male sounding voice.

"Destroyed reality?" the Master scoffed. "Had that already. Not pleasant I tell you."

"Angel Bob, I presume," the Doctor spoke almost as mocking as the other Time Lord. "And all running away. What can I do for you?"

"There is a rupture in time," the young voice continued.

"Yes, I noticed. And a big, complicated space time event should shut it up for a while. What will you do about it? It gets you first."

"The Angels will do nothing and wait. And then we will be saved."

"What?" Now the Doctor was startled. "Not by simply waiting."

"The angels calculated that you wouldn't throw yourself into the rupture. But we don't need you anymore. The other one can't move past us. And the light will reach him first."

"Shit," Roka uttered from behind the Master. "They mean you."

"Figured as much, thanks," he grumbled back. "Well... guess, we're gonna die. All because of you, matchstick."

"Hey!" Amy was almost in tears now. "I didn't want that to happen. Believe me."

Carefully he sat her down and looked behind them. The light was slowly creeping up on them, while the angels weren't bothered to move anymore. He tapped on Roka's shoulder to make her turn around and grinned.

"What's so funny?" She furrowed her brows. "We'll die. Just because _you_ needed to drag me here."

"Is that really the time?" the Master pursed his lips. "Besides, you were the one wanting to save copper head over there."

"Oi! Shut up, creep!"

Roka turned around, seeing the light approaching relentlessly. The angels didn't move and didn't bother to attack them anymore, patiently waiting for the crack to catch up with them. Even the Doctor was silent, not able to do anything about it for once. Roka swallowed hard, glaring at the approaching light.

Was that really it? She glanced over to Amy, who had sunk down, clutching her knees with still closed lids, to the Master, whose eyes were fixated on the approaching crack. This time not even he would be able to escape the inevitable. She thought of the Doctor and how this would haunt him for all of eternity.

An then she thought of herself. Of how distorted her very being was. So much so that she was now standing here, instead of having died.

"I'm a time traveller too," she eventually mumbled. "A hundred and fifty years hopping around everywhere... Even before that, I was in the TARDIS for two decades." Slowly she took a step backwards and swallowed.

The Master's face dropped and immediately he reached a hand out to grab her, but Roka evaded, slapping his arm away.

"I'm not even _supposed_ to be alive anymore." Tears sprang to her eyes. It made sense. It was a paradox. And now the universe was throwing her into this to fix that. "Isn't that funny?" She forced a mean smile onto her face. "I never existed anyway. Vanishing now will change nothing. For no one."

Carefully she took another step back, feeling the energy of the near light pulling at her essence, temptingly calling her closer, begging her to turn around, to face it and let it claim her.

The Master shot forwards, reached out again and this time didn't let her slip away. His hand only snatched her jacket, but he still tore at her, pulled her away from the light and into his arms, holding her so tight, she couldn't move a muscle.

"What are you doing?!" she cried out against his chest, still feeling the pull from the light, strong and demanding.

"Oh, don't worry. I'm just being selfish." He clutched her even tighter, glaring at the light that had almost reached them. A chuckle vibrated through him. "Too bad I never got a second chance, don't you think?"

She could feel his pulse racing, belying the calm attitude. With every passing second the pull from the rupture got stronger, and Roka stopped struggling, now realizing that she would not have to face this alone. The Master took a few steps back with her, almost touching the angels now. Like that at least a few of them would get eaten too. But they didn't seem to be bothered about it.

Then suddenly... there was silence. All noises simply stopped from one second to the next, as if someone had pressed a mute button on reality. Roka couldn't turn around, but she knew what this meant.

It was over.

With a last deep breath she dropped all resistance and tightly wrapped her harms around the Master, buried her face in his shirt, not able to hear, but at least to feel his soothing heartbeat.

And waited for the crack to swallow them.


	6. I - Stone to stone

"Doctor!" Amy whimpered. "Do something!"

"How far is the light away?" came his voice from behind the angels.

"Two... maybe three arm's-reaches," the Master replied. "Probably a minute before it gets us." He clutched Roka a little tighter and muttered, "Not the way I thought I'd die... Well, guess now I get how you felt, thinking you might vanish from existence."

Roka said nothing. She didn't want to think and was angry. At some cruel fate that decided to give her a second life, only to take it away so shortly after, at the Master, who was about to drag all three of them into this, instead of letting her jump alone into the rift.

And at herself too. The Master was an awful person and the last thing anyone should be doing was clinging to him like this. But here, in this moment between being alive and having never existed... just for a brief moment... it didn't matter.

He cleared his throat, his voice strangely calm. "That thing's actually quite pretty. But way too quiet, if you ask me." The Master chuckled, then got serious. "Hey... uh... might be a bad moment, but the only one we have left... So... err... And it won't even have happened..."

There was a pause, Roka could feel his heartbeat speeding up and when she looked up at him, a memory came rushing back all of a sudden. Of how she had stared into those ancient eyes for the first time, so so many years ago. How she had seen more than only madness and cruelty, hidden away behind this mask of self proclaimed evilness he preferred to wear.

"It's just... wanted to tell you... you should know..." He swallowed visibly, glanced at the approaching rift, then back at Roka, without saying more.

His hearts hammered so fast in his chest, Roka felt almost stupid being so calm herself. But the fear displayed in his eyes strangely was not of their approaching death...

The Doctor's voice interrupted him, loud and determined. "Angel Bob? You still hear me, right?"

"The angels are listening. Does the Doctor want to sacrifice himself? He would save his friends."

"Well, actually, about exactly that!" he announced. "Remember when I said to never put me in a trap? There is something else you shouldn't put. And I mean not ever put it between _me_ and my _friends_!"

"And what might that be, Sir?" the angel's voice wore a tiny hint of concern, although it was still as calm as ever.

"Yourself!"

Right when he said that, Roka felt a weird pull in her stomach and from one moment to the next she found they all were now inside the room with the Doctor and River.

"You're on the flight deck and safe," the woman reassured Amy. "Don't open your eyes. We got the teleports working. Told you so," she directed the last part at the Doctor.

"River Song! I could bloody kiss you!" He flicked a switch and hurled towards the angels.

"Ahh... maybe when you're older," River mumbled more to herself.

The Doctor laughed meanly and waved a hand at the angels. "Big complicated time event? Like... a big load of angels? _Have fun_!"

A moment later the rift reached the statues, quietly devouring one by one, engulfing them in its bright, white light. They didn't say anything through the communicator, nor gave off any other noise until they were all gone. Silence hung in the air for another second after that, the rift still approaching, before all the noises returned at once, followed by the light slowly collapsing in itself, the rift closing and vanishing for good within a mere second.

All that was left, was the forest and everyone inside the deck.

Roka let out her breath she had been unconsciously holding and dropped her head down in relief. Only then did she remember and roughly pushed herself away from the Master, suddenly aware that he still held her tightly. He let go only hesitantly, wearing a strange look on his face for a moment before he sharply turned away.

"You can open your eyes again, Amy," the Doctor reassured. "They are all gone. In fact... they never have been here in the first place."

She did and sighed, trembling, then throwing her arms around River, and a moment later around the Doctor. "Oh god, I thought it would be over wit us! Thank you!"

"Nah! I'd never let my friends down." He hugged her back.

"Pff... see? That's why I hate doing good things," the Master eventually complained a bit peeved. "No one ever thanks _me_."

"You didn't really do anything," Roka objected. "Quite the opposite. You risked us all dying, just because you didn't let me into the light."

"Now, now," the Doctor waved a finger at her. "You wouldn't have left as much as a scratch. It took every single one of the angels to seal the rift. You or River," he threw a glance at her, "sacrificing yourself would have done nothing." Swiftly he turned around, nodding at the Master. "Thanks. For saving them both."

Amy trod next to him and smiled. "Yeah, thanks man. I mean... you carried me out of the forest after all."

"I didn't come there for _you_, matchstick!" the Master grumbled and stared at his shoes.

"And here he ruins it already," River giggled and eagerly lead the way outside.

Now that all the angels were gone, they could simply take the same route back, through the forest and the catacombs, both now eerily silent and empty. A few statues were still around, but so broken that they would never come to life again.

"Oof, I really want to go home," Amy mumbled while stepping next to Roka. "After such an adventure that would be nice, don't you think?"

Roka didn't answer at first and only had eyes for the still impressing, empty temple, while they made their way down. But then she thought about Amy's words for a moment. Home...

"There... is no such thing for me," she finally replied.

"Whoa! No way! You've gotta have _some_ place. Somewhere you can return to at all times."

She shook her head. "When I lived with the Doctor, sure. But after that..." There had been longer stays at some places, here and there, but never somewhere she would have called home, or would have endured to stay.

"Oh, I never closed to doors to you," came the Doctor's voice from behind and he caught up to the two. "I can't remember having forbidden you to ever come back when you left."

A bit dumbfounded Roka blinked at his smiling face. That thought had never struck her. Not that she would have been able to find him so easily, but still...

"Tch, as if anyone would want to call an outdated model like that home," the Master mocked and pushed the protesting Doctor out of the way to grin down at Roka.

"No!" she objected, before he could even make the offer.

"Oi! Come on! There's always an open door for you."

"You mean a prison cell?" Roka grumbled. "Not to mention that you have no perception of personal space, privacy _or_ the fact that you can't just take my stuff without asking."

"My, my..." Amy taunted. "Guess I see now why she can't stand you,"

The Master folded his arms over his chest and pointedly looked away with puckered brows, clearly sulking.

Only then did Roka remember. "You wanted me to know something before. Seemed important."

"What?" He looked back and suddenly his face dropped. "Oh... nothing." When Roka raised a brow he got a tad bit agitated. "...was just... nonsense. Forget it."

After that he fell behind, not leaving any chance for further questions. They all stayed mostly silent the rest of the way, everyone lost in their own thoughts as it seemed. Roka mulled over the subject of actually staying with the Doctor for a while. She had been dragged into all of this, but in the end she wondered if it might actually be a good idea. Only for a while. It felt weirdly good to have company and like that she could get used to her missing glitch a bit better.

"Ohhh, bruised everywhere," Amy complained when they finally surfaced. "I hope that angel is really gone."

"Like I said, it was never there to begin with," the Doctor repeated with an explaining smile. "It can't harm you now."

"But I still remember it. And also the clerics. Why did they forget?"

"You're a time traveller now, Amy. Changes the way you see the universe. Good, isn't it?" The Doctor laughed.

"What's with the crack though?" Amy wanted to know. "The crack in my wall. Is it gone now?"

The Doctor's face dropped slightly. "Yes... this one is gone. But... the explosion that's causing it, is still happening. Somewhere out there."

Roka stood a bit away, but close enough to hear his last words. They made her slightly nervous. Cracks in reality... it revoke old memories of a time where she had thought her death would erase her from existence. She and the Master had found out that the glitch, combined with her time travelling, distorted her enough to cause exactly such rifts. And it had. But it had also reversed and erased itself from ever happening.

"No," the Master had appeared next to her, studying her worried face. "It's different from what your death caused."

"How would you know?"

A short, humourless laugh escaped him. "Because I was there, remember? Right in the eye of the storm, getting literally torn apart by it. Not a nice experience. Beyond painful, believe me."

"I... I didn't know it was like that..." Roka mumbled and looked away.

"Of course not. You literally were dead." He laughed once more then poked the Doctor, who had approached them. "Done here? Where to now? This is fun. Danger, running away and around..."

The Doctor gave him a long, cold look, letting the smile vanish completely from the other man's face.

Eventually the Master glared at the night sky above their heads and sighed. "Right... saving one ape doesn't really redeem me. Not that I'd want that! Absolutely not."

"Actually..." the Doctor interrupted. "I was about to ask if you want to stay for a bit longer. As long as you don't try to kill me that is..."

The Master's eyes lit up again and he flashed a grin. "I'm taking a vacation from that. Not forever, don't worry. It's way too much fun plotting against you." He clapped his hands together and spun around to the TARDIS. "Okay, let's move! What did you always shout? _Alons-y!_ Never thought, I'd say that once..."

"Ehhh... I'm not using that anymore. It's so... It just doesn't fit me now."

"So? Well... how about... _Auf geht's_!" he offered. "_Davai_! Or...mhm... I know! _Gotta catch'em all_!" And he proceeded to hum the Pokémon title melody on his way.

"Look at that... He makes you smile," Amy remarked and nudged Roka.

Only now did she realize that she did and dropped it immediately. "Well, it was funny." She shrugged.

"Riiiight... But the Doctor is _always_ funny, and he doesn't have the same effect on you." Amy winked at her and too went to get inside the TARDIS.

Roka cursed at her for a bit. _As if!_

Only the Doctor was missing now. He was talking to River and was about to leave when Roka approached, so she turned around and wanted to follow him, but got held back by River.

"This might be interesting," she said smiling. "I could find you nowhere in my diary. But I do remember you now. Nothing concrete though..."

"Does that mean... we'll meet again?" Roka asked.

"Mhm... I think so. You're an unknown in that big calculation. That makes it kinda fun. I wonder if you will change events... or if they always had been changed... We'll see. Oh and..." She stepped closer and took Roka into a firm embrace for a few seconds. "Thanks for going after Amy. Without you she wouldn't have made it back in time. Well... and without the Master. Oh boy, he'll be trouble..."

"So, he stays too?" Roka cocked a brow, but River only grinned and shook her head.

"Spoilers." She winked and then nodded to the TARDIS. "You'll have to see for yourself."

Roka was the last to enter the console room, finding everyone silent. The Doctor stood at the console typing in new coordinates, next to him Amy, biting her nails and deep in thought. The Master leaned against the banister, appearing somewhat absent.

"Nice, everyone aboard! Where to now?!" the Doctor was as excited as ever, quite as if nothing had happened just a few minutes ago.

"Actually... Doctor. I wanna go home," Amy announced quietly.

"Oh...Okay..." he simply replied, not averting his gaze from the console, but his face suddenly a lot less excited.

Amy chuckled. "Not like that. What I meant before. Just... I just wanna show you something." She threw a glance at the others and coughed. "Err... maybe just the two of us."

For once Roka didn't mind at all to be left out. She had had enough adventures for today and actually just wanted to get a good night's rest. And, as her grumbling stomach demanded, some proper food. If only those jump seats weren't so comfy. So much in fact, that she slightly nodded away, only getting aware of it after the two had left already. Only the Master was still here, unpleasantly glaring at her.

"Amy's right," she mumbled tiredly. "You really can be a creep."

He grinned and looked away, but stayed put.

"Why did you follow me?" Roka wanted to know. "Those angels could have killed you."

"To keep you from being suicidal again?" The Master shrugged.

"I never was... Not as long as we know each other that is. Which is damn long enough. I only thought the drones would keep me safe from the angels."

"Would have... if they wouldn't be able to draw energy from their surroundings." He pushed himself away from the banister and stood in front of Roka, arms folded, his expression dark. "What is it? Why do you hate me so much all of a sudden?"

Roka snorted annoyed. "Since you can't tell yourself, I see no need to inform you... Seriously though..." She narrowed her eyes at him. "How many reasons do you need? Isn't it enough to be an egoistic, cruel and heartless devil?"

"Those things never used to bother you." The Master leaned down to her, putting a hand at the backrest of the jump seat. His grin was nasty. "Quite the opposite. You're no saint either. And oh, how much you enjoyed running away with me and causing some havoc on your own."

Roka frowned and looked away. "Guess I was young and stupid."

"That's it?" He leaned further down and grabbed her collar, drawing her up from the seat. "Just that?" For a split second there was hot anger in his eyes, threatening to overtake his mind. It almost seemed as if he wanted to hurt her, but suddenly he just started to giggle. "Well... what else should I await from a human. Guess it's me who was stupid all along."

"No idea what you're rambling about," Roka grumbled and tried to free herself from his grip. "Let go!"

With a last long look at her face he threw her backwards and into the seat, sharply turned around and marched away.

The same moment the main doors flung open, followed by Amy, who seemed to have been pushed and leaned now against the console in a very lascivious manner. After her came the Doctor, looking a bit tousled and flushed, one of his suspenders hanging askew.

Roka wasn't quite sure what to make of this, even though it was rather obvious that it hadn't been the Doctor, who had started it.

As a mean snickering indicated, the Master had noticed it too. "Spare your breath, ape. No chance with that one."

"Oh, you're just jealous." Amy pursed her lips at him, then glared back at the Doctor. "And _we _should get into another room."

"Amy!" The Doctor pushed her slightly away, careful not to hurt her. "This is _not_ what this is all about! Stop it."

"Not? And what am I supposed to think?" she asked while trying to get closer again. "A stranger picking me up, in the middle of the night before my wedding, bragging around with his time machine, taking me places in my nighties!"

Those was indeed an interesting turn in events. Curiously and a bit amused, Roka observed the scene, not even thinking about getting involved. An occasional giggle from the side told her, she wasn't enjoying this alone.

"No, seriously!" Again he pushed her away, a bit ruder than before and relocated his suspenders. "You're here because I can't see it anymore."

"See what?"

"I'm nine hundred and seven. After a while it's just... all the same. I see a star out there and it's just a big ball of burning gas." He slumped down into the second jump seat, gesturing around. "I know how it began, I know how it ends, and I likely was there. Both times."

"Finally something about you I can get behind, Doctor." Without them noticing, the Master had stepped closer, his face a bit more serious than before, looking as if he really knew _too_ well what the Doctor was talking about. He flashed Amy a grin. "That's the problem when you make all of time and space your backyard. It becomes just that... a backyard. Still... I'd prefer it to be _my_ backyard.... but..."

"Master..." The Doctor sighed and sprang up. "Thanks for the input. But we don't need to hear about your conquering plans."

"Not? But I have some really fun ones," he replied, smirking widely.

"Yeah, Doctor... let him have his fun." Amy leaned over. "And meanwhile we go somewhere else."

"Amy, I take people with me, because you still see it. And if you see it, _I_ see it."

That didn't seem to please her at all though. "And that's the only reason you took me with you?"

"There are worse reasons," he muttered and marched to the console.

"See?" The Master snickered. "Told you so." He leaned a bit down and poked her with a finger, grinning meanly and glaring into her eyes for a moment. His hand sneaked up, cupping her chin. "But if it's a Time Lord you want..."

Amy blinked perplex at him and, strangely enough, didn't move away or protest. She even took half a step nearer, seemingly not very reluctant. Her form nestling smoothly against his own as he pulled her closer, one hand at her back. "He wouldn't even know how to treat you properly." The Master muttered, dipping his head down to place a ginger kiss to her neck.

Neither the Doctor nor Roka understood what actually was happening, both too perplex to react. But then Roka shot from her seat. Something was clearly off. This wasn't like him at all. He hated humans way too much to even think about seducing one. And he even risked losing the newly gained trust he had earned from the other Time Lord, would he proceed like this.

"Alright, this is enough!" the Doctor exclaimed. "I'm getting Rory in here. Now! Master, let her be!"

"Nope. Not gonna happen." He grinned widely, shooting an almost unnoticeable glance in Roka's direction. "That copper head here is pumped with hormones... would be a shame not to use that, eh?" He gave Amy a wink and she clearly shared this opinion, even stretching and trying to kiss him now.

"So eager to break yet another heart?" Roka grumbled and took Amy's hand. "Come. You'd regret this, believe me."

"Oh, I'm really not sure I would," she said with a slightly besotted grin, that made clear in what state her mind truly was.

Roka might not have been as strong as a Time Lord, but the past years had trained her at least enough to bring Amy out of the Master's reach, despite her wanting to just walk back. Stupid girl, as if she had any idea what she would be getting herself into.

To her surprise neither the Doctor nor the Master followed them. The latter only glared angry daggers at Roka, but stayed silent otherwise.


	7. I - Detective work

"Ohhh, what have I done?!" Amy sighed, face buried in her hands. "The Doctor... anytime. But why the hell did I...?"

Roka reached her a cup of tea. They were in the library, in a corner she had never used much. Therefore it was unfamiliar enough not to raise old memories, making it a good enough place.

"Nothing wrong with you," she reassured understandingly when Amy took the cup. "Just mild hypnosis. He can do that."

"Noooo way! Och, this is awful." She blew at her tea, but only stared at it. "Is that what he did with you? Hypnosis, I mean."

Roka grumbled. "Mhm... once. To get my TARDIS key. Good thing his skills have limits. When your will gets too strong for him, he can't control you anymore."

"So, he hypnotised you only for the keys?"

"And the location of the TARDIS, yeah. It was hidden back then."

"Oh..." Amy made and finally took a sip."Just thought... because you talked about _breaking another heart_."

Roka slightly winced at that and cursed under her breath, earning an amused glare from Amy. Suddenly she wished she could be invisible again, or melt into the armchair. Or how about one of those cracks swallowing her?

"So, there was something then," she stated matter-of-factly, still smiling, and laughed when Roka frowned. "Not that I'd understand it... but it's quite obvious that you two were close once."

With a grunt Roka sunk together and reached for her own tea cup.

"Why not give him another chance?" Amy winked and seemed to have found her element. "I mean... there had to have been _something_ that made you like him."

"Amy..."

"Come on, you can tell me. You're like my little sister now."

"That doesn't even work!" Roka sighed and took a sip from the hot tea. It was soothing and warmed her up a bit. But she couldn't help it. Even though she was a bit annoying, Amy had already found her way into Roka's heart. Having a _big_ sister like her was actually a fun thought. So she decided to open up at least a little.

"Is Rory your first love?"

"Ha! No! I mean... we were always friends, but there was this Frank Swanson years ago... err... why?"

"Mhm... how to put it..." Roka looked upwards and thought for a moment. "How long did it take you to get over him?"

"Phew... gosh, I was madly in love with that guy. Probably... okay, I'm honest. Almost two years, but..." Suddenly she fell silent, then only let out a small, "Oh..."

"Yeah... oh." Roka took another sip from her tea. "He was gone for one and a half centuries."

Amy sighed loudly and nodded, then grinned. "But why in the first place? He's such a bad guy. I bet he has more than one skeleton in his closet."

"Well... add trying to kill the Doctor a few hundred times, enslaving earth and killing a good portion of its population, nuking Japan... Okay, that technically never happened, but still. Starting several wars throughout the universe, toppling empires, genocides, murder, torture... Don't think you'll find much, he hasn't done yet."

But still she had once ignored all of it, had been able to see the actual man behind the actions. And there was a surprising lot to the Master, if he ever allowed someone to witness it. The way he acted _right now_ though was only childish and infuriating.

"Whoa! And the Doctor let's him run around freely?!" Amy jumped up, her expression that of horror and shock. "Seriously. How could you... Okay, none of my business, but still... why him?"

"He was the only one who could remember me," Roka mumbled and shrugged. It was only half the truth, but right now she wasn't in the mood to think about the rest. "My glitch didn't have an effect on him."

Amy glared at her for a moment, then slumped down into her armchair again. "What's that all about? That glitch, I mean. I don't see anything weird about you. Well... aside from you always wearing gloves and being two hundred years old, that is."

Roka glanced down at said gloves and thought about taking them off. But somehow she wasn't very eager to see what was beneath the thin cloth, making her also wonder once more if it could ever be fixed. Instead she took another long sip from her tea and decided to answer Amy's question.

"Did you know that there's more than one reality?"

"You mean like... parallel universes? Is there such a thing?"

Roka nodded. "Some are exactly like ours. And you and I are there as well. In some. In others maybe not. And the only difference might be our hair colour. Others are... completely different. Technology evolved at different speeds or even other kinds of it. Seems I came from one of these."

"Wait! You're from another reality?" Amy looked her up and down as if to find something funny about her.

"According to what my mother told me... I was born dead." Roka glared into her tea, thinking about how to put it as short as possible. "Imagine you wouldn't want a child. But instead of abortion you could simply search other universes for another version of yourself that had a stillborn. So you invent a machine that can swap people between dimensions. The mother who didn't want a child ends up with the dead kid instead. And the devastated mother from the other place gets a pleasant surprise when her baby suddenly springs to life."

"Geeze! That's fantastic! I mean... wait. There's some dead duplicate of you somewhere? And are your parents _here_ even your... well... you know..."

"The DNA matches, yes." Roka nodded. "Weird, isn't it? That's not the problem though. Something went wrong when they swapped me here. My matter got distorted. Wasn't an issue the first few years, but the older I got the more... people started to forget that I even exist."

"How's that?"

"My matter was basically floating in and out of reality." Again she glared at her gloves. "And therefore out of memory as well. It got so bad that people started not even seeing me at all, if I didn't literally bump into them. I... actually would have dissolved a long time ago so instable was my matter... Well... As soon as I entered the TARDIS it froze my time stream to prevent that from happening." She saw Amy's curious look and somehow it felt nice to have so much attention for once, so she continued, "It means I don't age. Didn't completely erase the main issue though. Just slowed it down."

"I'm... sorry. Really." For once it seemed as if Amy wasn't sure what to say, but her eyes wore an almost motherly warmth.

"It also made me some kind of a living paradox." Roka shrugged. "But when I died it got resolved and vanished. Together with the glitch. So... I _won't_ dissolve one day. The frozen time stream stayed though."

"You... died..." Amy repeated carefully.

"It's... complicated. When the paradox vanished, it erased my entire timeline. But with that also the fact that I died at all. And normally it would just mean I'd drop dead, because... I don't even get it myself. It makes sense though. Ask the Doctor about it." She glared at the rest of her tea and wished it would be enough to warm her insides. "My matter was in such distorted state... and I was travelling time a lot. That changes... everything, as you know. Somehow this combination made everything reverse just enough... and so here I am. Somehow still alive, although I shouldn't be."

"Wow, that's quite the story. You should write that all down, seriously." Amy smiled. "I'm glad you're still here. We'll have looots of fun together! But say... I'm horribly curious... How did you... you know... die?"

"I killed her, what else?"

Both women spun around, seeing the Master approach with a mean grin on his face.

"And it was a pleasure." With a cocky bow he slumped into another armchair and tapped against his head. "You know, being in the centre of a dissolving paradox enables you to remember what never was. Burned the memory of her into my entire time stream. Glitch or not. I won't ever be able to forget."

Amy was about to reply something, while Roka threw poisonous glares at the Master. Neither of them managed to say anything else though, because the Doctor strolled in with a determined face and dragging a confused and somewhat angry Rory Williams along.

Roka didn't stay to witness the certainly unfolding fight. She was urgently hungry and after a small meal it was hard to keep her eyes open any longer. After all it was still the same day they had left the Master's TARDIS. A hellishly long day at that.

For a good minute she stood in front of the door that lead to the room she had occupied for over twenty years. For the entire time she had travelled with the Doctor. And this meant it was full with memories she didn't want to even think about.

Eventually she sighed and dropped with her back against the wall. "Can you redecorate a little?" she asked tiredly. "I don't care what's inside. Just comfy and with a bed."

The TARDIS had never cared too much about Roka, so when nothing happened for a good minute, it wasn't that surprising. But then the door changed, turned itself into dark, delicately patterned wood. On it was a silver ornament of a crow with spread wings. Carefully Roka opened it and peeked inside, finding herself in a comfy room with wooden floors and a fireplace made of black stone; two armchairs and a small table in front of it. The walls were lined with bookshelves, and below a blind window sat a compact bed with drawers on the bottom. A perfect sleeping- or reading corner.

"Thank you," Roka muttered, got rid of shoes and jacket and slumped down on the bed to wrap herself into the soft, warm blanket.

Sleep took her away almost in an instant, however, already released her not many hours later. Usually she had always had a certain skill for being able to sleep everywhere. Something that had been of great help during the last years. What robbed her of the well needed rest, though, was the familiarity.

Roka shot up, turning around in the darkness and huddling under her blankets once more. It had been a dream. A long and strange dream about her travelling with a Vortex Manipulator for over a century. About the Master getting sucked into a time lock, never to escape, only to do so anyway. The familiar smell of the Doctor's TARDIS made her close her eyes again, ignoring the nagging knowledge in her mind, that it all had been real. She couldn't escape it.

But now she was awake, and her mind eagerly busy spinning thoughts together, digging out memories, tormenting her with images and scenes of times she missed so dearly that it almost physically hurt to remember them.

She remembered travelling with the Master. How she had enjoyed sharing a life free of burdening morals and rules. It had been tempting, exciting. She remembered how he had subtly taken care of her, although he would have never admitted it, how they slowly had become something like friends and eventually a lot more.

And then the drums had overwhelmed him completely, had driven him to truly insane and illogical acts. She had tried to help, had tried to reach him in time, even though she wouldn't have been able to actually do anything about it. Maybe... if she had managed to get back just a few minutes earlier...

Roka curled herself to a ball and wrapped both arms around her torso. She had become so good at ignoring it. At pretending she wouldn't care for so long that she now actually really didn't anymore. She had felt nothing when he had reappeared, nothing when he had kissed her.

Nothing...

But then why... why did it still hurt so much?

It seemed that Amy, too, had gotten some sleep. If together with her fiancé or not stayed a mystery. Both didn't look too rested though. And judging by the looks on their faces, not because their night had been pleasant.

They all somehow found themselves in the kitchen and Roka showed them how to use the foot machine. "It's like those things they have in Star Trek," she explained, barely containing a loud yawn. "But if you hack them, you can even make your own recipes."

"Ah... thanks..." Rory said insecurely when he got handed a plate with sandwiches. "Who... are you? I thought it's just the Doctor, but then there was the other guy and..."

"My little sister," Amy announced, pursing her lips determinedly and poured them some tea.

"What? You don't have a..."

"Now I do." Her voice left no room for any discussion, effectively silencing Rory.

Roka shrugged, as if to say it wasn't her doing. "I'm just another time traveller. Human though. Used to travel with the Doctor, then on my own... now I'm back." She shrugged again and made herself some coffee.

When they entered the console room the Doctor was already about to whirl around, plug and unplug wires, screwing things and making other's spark. "You know, Roka," he called out from under the console. "I really got too used to having a janitor. Almost forgot how much work this can be."

"You could pay me out," she responded mockingly.

A moment later his head appeared, tousled and grinning. "Do you accept ice cream?"

"Absolutely."

"Perfect! I thought we could all got to Italy!" A bit clumsily he heaved himself up and walked around the console. "Although I'm not sure they had invented that already back then... but if not, we'll just do a pit stop in modern times on our way back."

"Italy?" Amy hopped next to them, ignoring Rory's worried glances. "Anywhere specific?"

"Oh yes," the Doctor confirmed conspiratorially and pushed a few buttons to get them moving.

Poor Rory wasn't prepared for the flight and landed face down on the ground, slowly and groaning pulling himself up afterwards. Amy grabbed his arm to help and they all marched out the doors. Only then did Roka realize that the Master was missing, and she hurried to follow, before he could make an appearance.

"Venezia!" the Doctor introduced proudly, leading the way over a market place. "La Serenissima. Impossible city. _Preposterous_ city. Founded by refugees running from...."

Roka's head drifted away, more occupied with their surroundings than the Doctor's speech. He was like a history book. Or he probably had digested a few thousands of those at some point. The city, though, was indeed fascinating. For some reason Roka had never visited, and regretted it now. The architecture was simply beautiful, accentuated by water everywhere, snaking itself between buildings like thousands of tiny rivers.

No wonder the city was associated with romanticism. In a way it managed to enchant a visitor with its mere existence.

Her wandering gaze fell inside a small alleyway, where a bunch of kids were playing. Urchins, obviously, but they seemed happy nonetheless. One of the kids, a boy about the age of probably ten or so, looked up, when they passed. Roka couldn't see much, because he wore a too big hat, but he followed her with his shadowed eyes and suddenly grinned, putting a finger in front of his mouth.

"You owe Casanova a chicken?" Rory's flabbergasted voice tore her attention back to the others.

"Long story. We had a bet."

"What's wrong?" Amy leaned to her and looked at the kids. "Know any of these?"

She shook her head. "No, it was just..."

"Whoa, whoa, whoa! Papers, if you please. Proof of residency, current bill of medical inspection." A demanding male voice made them all stop. There stood a guy with a wooden clip board, ink well and quill, clad in all black and making a good effort to look important.

The kids were gone.

Something was weird with this, and most of the time Roka's gut feeling was rather accurate. So she left the others and scurried towards the alleyway. It was narrow with a dead end. Where did they go then? In case those kids hadn't been aliens or could climb walls... Both not the most promising probabilities.

The Doctor and his fellowship had vanished when she turned around, so Roka decided to spend some time on her own. They surely wouldn't be back before the evening anyway. Having her Vortex Manipulator here would have been great though. She had built in a navigation system at one point. Now she had neither this, nor a normal map of the city. And it was astonishingly hard to navigate all the streets.

It still was weird how everyone could see her, making her wish she had chosen less conspicuous clothes. Not that she wore something too special, but definitely nothing people had seen in this time. And without the glitch she also couldn't steal so easily anymore. She would have to refine her thievery skills in some other ways from now on.

Here and there were more urchins running through the streets, dirty, in unfitting clothes and playing with things that probably were rubbish. None of them behaved as weird as the first ones had though.

Somewhere she stopped to listen to a gondolier singing a sad tune to a group of gondolas, while they casually slid along the canal, filled with people in fine clothes and wearing porcelain masks. Maybe they were on their way to some festival.

It got evening in no time, but when Roka returned to the TARDIS and knocked there was no response. Too bad she hadn't kept her own key when she had left for good. But no one opening also meant, no one was inside, so she strolled around for a bit longer, soaking in the cold night air.

Venice at night was a whole new adventure. Every gondola wore a light, illuminating the water in orange and yellow wherever they went. The streetlights had the same colour, setting them apart from the deep blue night sky. It was so bright that almost no stars were to see. But instead the lamps cast hundreds of orange freckles onto the water, letting it twinkle like a universe of its own.

It wasn't as if Roka had relied on her invisibility alone all those years, so it was easy to steel at least some bread from the market. And there were plenty of fountains for water. Probably not too drinkable normally, but that had been another thing Roka had done to her body at one point. Getting some kind of vaccine that had almost killed her, but had therefore made her almost immune to the most common kinds of germs. Almost. There still had been enough unpleasant incidents.

Strolling around like this finally felt familiar again. For a moment she even was about to forget that she wasn't travelling alone anymore. Exactly this was what had kept her going through all those years. Evenings like this one, calm, with a beautiful sight, just watching life and people passing by...

A blood curdling scream pierced the night.

Well, and there was that. Roka sprang up and glanced around, but couldn't make out anything suspicious.

"Wasn't me," came a voice next to her.

"How the hell did you find me?" Roka grumbled without turning around to the Master. "That city is so confusing to navigate."

"Luck?" He stepped into her line of sight and looked around. "If you search for the source of the scream... probably that direction."

Roka marched away, but he of course followed closely. There were some alleyways nearby and a few that lead to other streets.

"Want to get in trouble?" the Master eventually asked grinning. "Just say a word."

"Does that make you leave me alone?"

"Nope." He nudged her. "Don't be so grumpy."

"Yeah, somehow this is a bit reversed." Roka sighed. "Normally it's you, who's sulking all day."

"Not true!" He protested and... sulked.

"See?" She couldn't help it and hid a grin by turning her head away. "Oh... guess, I found my trouble."

There, between rows of houses looming over the street, lay the dark silhouette of a woman. It was too badly lit to make out details, but she likely was dead, judging by the position she lay in. If they hadn't come along she probably wouldn't have been found before morning. Roka carefully approached the body and squatted down next to her.

"Really wasn't me," the Master assured once more. "But I love me a nice murder mystery."

"Mhm... my thought exactly." She observed the woman, felt her pulse, but found nothing. "Body is still warm, must have been recently. So it's likely the one who screamed."

"A courtesan. If that's what they call themselves in these times..." He wrinkled his nose. "Not really a mystery here. Probably owed someone some money. He beat her, she fell, hit her head and died." He groaned. "Boring."

"You're really bad at this...." Roka shook her head. "There's no blood on her head. But... well... someone had fun cutting her stomach open and spilling some guts... literally."

She held up a piece of the skirt, revealing a big wound and said organs. Slowly she got up and glanced around.

"See? Boring. What do you even want to do? Go after the murderer, get some bounty?"

"No... just for fun." Once more she shrugged.

"You really changed," the Master mumbled after a while, observing Roka closely. "Alright, why not! Let's play detective for a bit. I'm good at that!" Grinning widely he suddenly got out a pipe from his infinite pockets and lit it.

Roka snorted and turned away once more. "Okay, Sherlock. Then tell me how she died. And since you're at it... also where the murderer went to."

"Pff.... easy." He blew some smoke into her face and squatted down next to the corpse. "Although I have to say, you became quite heartless. Playing with dead people... isn't that _my_ job?"

"Heartless? No." She got down next to him. "But since I can't bring her back to life, I might at least find the culprit and... mhm... Haven't thought about that part... _You_ can play with them."

"Deal... Might invite them for coffee." He grinned nastily, biting around on the pipe. "Cause of death... organs outside of the body. See? Easy." Satisfied he took another puff.

Roka sighed and rubbed her eyelids. "No. Unlikely." Quickly she snatched the pipe from his hands to use it herself. "There's not much blood here... but a wound like that would have caused quite the big puddle, don't you think?"

"Oh..." The Master observed the wound, then her hands and head. "There's two small punctures on her neck." Slowly he looked at Roka, a way too big smile curving his lips. "Our culprit is a vampire!"

She snorted and punched his arm. "Show at least _some_ respect."

"To a lump of flesh? Nah."

Roka ignored him and thought for a moment, biting around on the pipe. "It's peculiar... it really seems as if somehow she lost most of her blood... and _afterwards_ got cut open." Looking around she found something even more strange and got up, pointing towards a building a bit away. "Do me a favour and go in there and..."

"Not gonna happen," he plainly refused.

"Why not?"

He frowned at her, then pointed towards the building. "It's a brothel!"

"So?" Roka puffed at the pipe and gave him an amused glint.

"What would I want in there?!"

"Well..." She folded her arms, pointing the pipe at him. "Now that I think about it... yesterday you did seem a bit... _needy_."

His facial expression really made it hard for her not to laugh. But that in return made her remember Amy's words, and _that_ made her curse inwardly. At herself, at Amy, and mostly at the Master.

"What?!" he outraged. "I'm a Time Lord! Superior biology, remember? We don't even produce any hormones to get... _needy_."

"Uh-huh... don't scream around so much. There's still a corpse, and maybe a murderer still nearby. Oh, and I told Amy about your little mind trick... you probably should avoid her. If you don't want to get slapped again, that is."

For a second it appeared as if the Master would simply lose it. He roughly grabbed Roka's collar and glared down at her so hatefully that it could have been frightening. Only a second later though a mad grin split his lips.

"Jealous?"

"Not. Even. A. Bit." Roka said slowly and as if she wouldn't dangle halfway in the air. With a more awkward than useful move she brought the pipe to her mouth and blew some smoke at the Master. He finally let go, but proceeded to murder her with his eyes. "And now get your ass in there." She nodded towards the brothel.

"No. Way." The Master tapped her head with every word. "Have you any idea how unhygienic that is? Especially in a time like this! Even if I could be _needy_, as you put it... I don't even want to think about with how many other..."

"Master..."

"No!"

"I'm a woman."

"I know... I checked that. So what?"

"I can't go in there. They'd shred me to pieces," she explained nonchalantly, then pointed to the ground. "But it seems as if the murderer might have some... kink." There was a hardly visible blood trail leading away from the corpse and straight towards the building.

"Oh... that... err..." He coughed and straightened. "Interesting. No blood on the victim... but on someone's boots..."

"Exactly. Maybe it's an alien..."

With a last venomous look the Master sharply turned and sped towards the building, leaving Roka behind, who hid in the shadows, still not able to wipe the mean grin from her face entirely. She hated to admit it, but right now she actually had fun. Well... maybe he had been a tiny little bit right about her having become a bit heartless over the years. But things just happened and one had to make the best of it. If that meant maybe preventing another murder this night, all the better.

Something was off. Roka couldn't point her finger at it, even though it definitely was there, gently tapping at the edge of her consciousness. As if a gust of wind had hit her, without one being there. No matter where she looked, nothing seemed out of place - apart from the corpse of course.

And then she saw it. Only for a split second there was a horrible figure standing next to that lantern and...

Roka shook her head. Why did she feel scared all of a sudden? And what had she just been staring at? There was nothing in that direction. Was she daydreaming? Or was there anything else but tobacco in that pipe? She eyed it sceptically, when steps approached. The Master was back already, however missing his tie.

"Found anything?" she asked wit raised eyebrows and gave him an amused glint. "Apart from a tie thief."

"They found it rather interesting... and I needed _something_ to pay them..." He shrugged.

"Mhm... I see..."

"For _information_!" Angrily he snatched the pipe out of her hands. "No one saw anything. We're on a dead end here."

"Seems quite like it." Roka sighed and threw another glance at the corpse. Sometimes there was just nothing one could do. And the police in these times were as useless as a brick when it came to cases like these. "How anticlimactic. I wonder what the others are up to. No one was there when I came back earlier."

With a sigh and a headshake she walked back to where they had come from, feeling a little down because she hadn't been able to catch whomever had done this. In the end the poor woman would end up being just another nameless victim.

"And I went in there all in vain," the Master grumbled and threw the pipe into the water. "Well... it's Venice. There ought to be more than one murder in a night. And if not..."

Roka didn't even listen. Out of the corner of her eye she could make out movement. There in the shadow of a house stood a small boy with a too big hat, arms folded and looking as if he was waiting for something, or some_one_. Slowly he looked up and smiled at her, then raised a finger to his lips.

This time she tried not to lose him out of sight, but a nudge to her ribs made her wince and look up for a split second. Something rushed past them, way too fast for a child and barely even visible.

"Find me!" a voice whispered.

Then he was gone, leaving nothing but silence and not even the hint of a trace.

"Let's seize a gondola!" The Master suggested, when she proceeded to ignore him. "Break some statues?"

"Yeah.... do that," she mumbled absently.

That kid had looked so familiar. However it wasn't possible. There was literally no one who knew her, especially not in old Venice. And why and how should she find him, if he was running away all the time? This all made no sense. It could also be a regular urchin, trying to steal something, maybe lure her into a dark alleyway where more of his friends would be waiting... But she couldn't shake this weird, uneasy feeling that something was... off. About the whole evening.

Roka pondered about it all the way back to the TARDIS, until she remembered that there was a spare key on top of it. Probably nothing the Master should know about, so she waited until he got bored and went his own ways. When he was out of sight, she jumped up and grabbed the rim, really finding the key there. It would probably stay a mystery forever how it survived being outside all the time... But since it was part of the TARDIS there ought to be some explanation. After unlocking the door, she put it back and went inside.

This night she found more rest in her sleep, even though it might only be out of exhaustion. In the end it didn't matter much.

In the morning everyone returned. All of them strolling inside, blabbering all at once.

Amy excitedly told a story about alien vampires, while Rory looked as if he simply was glad that everything was finally over. The Doctor had a thoughtful look on his face, while the Master... well... he was in handcuffs.

"How could I know that dumb statue was holy to those apes?" he whined while the Doctor soniced the cuffs open. "And I didn't drown that gondolier. I swear! It were those vampires!"

"Really now?" Roka gave him a sceptic glance. "Well... seems you were right about those after all. Maybe you're not too shabby as a detective."

It actually had been meant in a mocking manner, but the proud grin on his face was just too happy, so Roka left it at that, not finding it in her to ruin this little moment.


	8. I - Perfectly ordinary

"Ayyye, that wasn't the date I had in mind for you two," the Doctor whined. "It was fun, of course, but far from romantic. How about... there is a bright pink ocean on Okeleperaxia. Poisonous, so you can't take a swim, but beautiful nonetheless."

"Poisonous?" asked Rory carefully and threw an anxious side-glance at Amy as if he was awaiting her to be excited about it.

Well, she was a little bit. And if she was totally honest, it was fun having Rory on their adventures now. He just had to... warm up to them a little, and with time he would surely grow to love them as much as she did.

"Maybe something... tame and completely safe then?" she offered and squeezed Rory's hand. It was okay to take it slow. Her love for him had been rekindled in Venice, and that so fast and so intensely that it made her feel bad for ever having tried to mess with the Doctor. A little at least. A smaller part of her still wouldn't mind.

The Doctor thought about it intensely, his face darkening, brows raising, his mouth moving from one side to the other, his tongue poking his cheek... Eventually he nudged the Master, who was repairing something next to him.

"Any ideas?"

"Err... nope." He obviously didn't even try to think of something and plainly resumed his work.

"Come on. Since you're staying here, you can at least be of help." The Doctor tried to poke a finger at him, but the Master evaded, grabbed the finger and bent it just enough to let the other man whimper and slightly double.

"I'm repairing your stupid ship, because you're too daft to do it yourself! Tell me something about being helpful again!" He grunted and let go of the Doctor.

He slid away, rubbed his finger and sulked a bit. "Was just thinking you might have something in mind, is all."

The Master flung his screwdriver onto the console and fully turned around, a devilish grin on his lips, as he tried to tower above the actually bigger Doctor. "I am the Master, evil down to the core, demise and doom of the universe... _What_... makes you think, that _I_ could have _any_ good idea for something stupid like a date!?"

"Well..." the Doctor squeaked, bent backwards and carefully stepped away, then pointing behind the other Time Lord. "Because you had one with her."

Everyone turned and saw Roka sauntering in, a mug in her hands and a bit perplex about the sudden attention. Amy chuckled at the thought of those two having an actual date and decided to probe them later for details.

"That's actually a great idea." the Master stroked his beard dramatically and glanced at Roka. "Where would you go on a date?"

"With you?" She gave him a mocking glare above her mug, while taking a long sip. "How about this huge volcano on Helkeriva I heard it's one of the hottest in the Milvartia Nebula."

The Master chuckled and grinned widely. "Something dangerous then? I like that."

"No..." Roka leaned casually against the banister and gave off a content hum. "Just to push you in. Completely accidentally of course."

"Okay... stop." The Doctor trod between them, before anyone could drag this any further. With a wide smile he hurled around and held open his hands towards Rory. "How about, we let you decide? After all you need to be initiated as a new crew member, ey?"

"Uh... me?" He pointed at himself and threw some help-seeking glances around. "Oof, I don't know... I mean it's... err..."

Amy clutched his arm and cuddled against him. "Out with it! You have an idea, I can sense it!"

Rory slightly opened his mouth and gave her his adorable 'please don't kill me' look. He swallowed hard and finally told, "I never had the money for it, but since you still miss Scotland... I thought... uh..." He trailed off, visibly getting more insecure by the second. "E... Edinburgh? Just... have a nice day strolling through the city." And hastily he added, "But that's probably way too boring, with no aliens and no planets and..."

"Aaaaw, that's perfect!" Amy squeaked and clutched her fiancé around his torso, loving him all the more for being so attentive.

"I... is it?"

"Yeah! Why not?" the Doctor chimed in, whirling around and already typing in coordinates. "Lovely ancient city, layers upon layers of houses and streets and _history_!"

"Modern times would... do it." Rory held up a finger. "Or at least sometime without any plague, war or... alien vampires."

Amy chuckled and gave him a peck on his cheek. "Don't worry. We'll have a totally ordinary date, we two. Mhm... maybe three?"

"Oh, no. I'm not coming with you, this time." The Doctor clapped his hands and smiled. "Safer that way... I'm a magnet for trouble. A troublet! Or a magtroub?"

"Wasn't thinking about you, daft old alien," she mocked and poked Roka. "Want to come along?"

"No," she grumbled without hesitation, her voice gruff and tired, her gloved hands still clutching the steaming coffee mug.

"Och, pleeease!"

"Why would I want to hang around you two all day?" Roka moaned. "I'd just be some third wheel."

Amy snorted and poked her again. "Fine. Then _we_ two'll have a date tomorrow."

"Oi!" Rory protested. "First aliens, then girls!"

She giggled and dragged him towards the doors. "Sure. Have to test everything once, before I can decide what to keep."

With that she pushed her poor boyfriend to the doors, while the Doctor landed roughly, and not without sending Rory almost to the floor once more. Amy caught him though and after a test glance outside - just to see if they were in the right place - the two vanished into the noisy city, their chattering slowly tapering off as the doors closed behind them.

A sudden, weird silence stayed in the TARDIS, only filled with the machine humming. The Doctor turned to Roka, glanced her up and down, her somewhat tired look, the coffee mug, the gaze that told him to not even think about saying what he was going to so say.

He did anyway.

"How about we three go and have a look at the city then? Somewhere away from the other two? Could introduce you to..."

"No," Roka grumbled once more and shot a dark look in the direction of the Master.

"I've done _nothing_ to you!" he howled. "Doctor, explain!"

"What?" the other one protested indignantly. "How am I supposed to know anything?"

The Master squinted his eyes at him and folded his arms in protest. "You're the expert on humans."

Roka absolutely wasn't in the mood for any of the two. So while they continued arguing, she sat down her mug to the console and quietly left the TARDIS on her own.

It took them a good minute to even realize it. The Master finally stopped trying to strangle the Doctor with his bowtie and instead pushed him away. Somehow the Doctor managed not to fall over his own feet, stumbling towards the door in his new fidgety manner and glanced outside.

"Gone..." he remarked and turned around with a grin. "Ah, whatever. Come, Master, let's take a look."

"Pfff... that stuff's not going to repair itself, you know." He grabbed the screwdriver again and plainly turned away.

The Doctor scratched his head and pondered for a moment. "I can't remember having asked you to fix anything..."

"Wouldn't do it, if you had," the Master cheered. "And I'm bored."

The Doctor sighed and poked his head back outside for a while, contemplating what to do in this time and place, before turning around and letting out a surprised squeak when the other Time Lord was next to him all of a sudden.

"I'm not your friend." The Master folded his arms and scowled at the Doctor.

He straightened his bow tie and himself, nodding firmly. "I know."

"And as soon as I got what I need from you, I'll try to kill you again." When the other one didn't react for a few seconds, he added, "Just wanted to have this clarified."

"That I know too." The Doctor really didn't look surprise in the least and simply opened the doors to wave a hand outside. "So... have a stroll? It's Edinburgh after all. They founded this place back, when everyone..."

Pushing the Doctor aside the Master rushed into the city, not waiting for the other one to catch up. The longer he was with the others, the more he got the feeling it had been a bad idea. So far nothing at all had changed and he wasn't the least wiser than the very first day.

Worst of all, he wasn't even quite so sure anymore why he was even doing all that. Or _what_ it even was he was doing.

"Mind to tell me, what happened?" the Doctor's voice interrupted his thoughts, and for the first time the Master took an actual look around.

It _was_ a nice city. Old and filled to the brim with secrets, etched into ancient stone, whispering from every corner, inviting its visitors to stay just long enough to get sucked into the shadows.

Abruptly the Master halted and glared at the statue ahead. Almost automatically his hand stretched out and traced the small symbol that was scratched into the stone of the socket. Anyone else probably wouldn't have even noticed, but for him it had become impossible to overlook the shape.

"Oh, what's that? Let me see." The Doctor stretched to peek at the carving. "A bird? Some old graffiti? You know it?"

"A crow," the Master mumbled and pocketed his hands. "I followed this dumb symbol for way too long."

"Oh? What for? A secret plan? Some grand scheme to take over the universe? Oh, I've got it! It's something to do with...."

"Nothing the like." With a sigh he leaned his back against the socket of the statue and closed his eyes. "Roka left those. Everywhere she went during her travels." A humourless laugh escaped him, leaving nothing but a pained grin on his face. "I told her to write her name across the stars, so people would remember her. Apparently she did."

"Oh right, her name means crow. I remember!" The Doctor clapped his hands and grinned. "Fantastic idea."

"Yeah..." For a good minute they both stayed silent, before the Master eventually pushed himself away from the socket and continued to saunter down the noisy road. "I get now why you always take some humans with you," he admitted. "Took me almost ten years to find her. But it didn't feel like it."

The Doctor chuckled. "Fascinating, isn't it? How they can let you experience the universe through their eyes. See..." he went on. "I choose them wisely. Take those, who have an open heart and are still able to be amazed by what's around them. They are important to me, all of them."

"Pfff... you're just using them as tools." The Master snickered. "Because you're bored and need them to feel special. And when they break you just pick the next one."

"Nooo! Not true!" His face took on a devastated look. "I try to keep them safe. I really do. But it's such a dangerous life. Ours." He threw a quick glance at the Master. "Humans break so easily, you know that. And they age so much faster than us."

"Reasons enough to stay away from them. But what do you want to tell me? I won't harm your pets, don't worry."

"Nothing..." Suddenly the Doctor fell silent. A very distinct sign that he desperately wanted to speak. It took less than a minute of silence before he cracked. "I don't know if I can do anything for Roka. I don't even know what you're expecting from me. I know, I know... she's human and that makes you think I know what to do. But I don't even know what the _issue_ is!"

The Master responded nothing and just glared at his shoes while walking. He didn't even pay attention to where they were going, nor at the chatty humans around them.

"Normally..." the Doctor eventually continued. "Humans are happy when they can witness the unexpected, the fantastic, the unspeakable _beauty_ of time and space. However, for her... she knows all these things. And I honestly think it was _too_ much of everything. This life... it burns us out. _Us_! What do you think it does to a human? Especially to one who was forced to being lonely all that time? Lonely is not good. Humans wither like plants when they don't get company."

Those were things the Master had thought about as well, but never that thoroughly. Not that there had been a lot of time to think about it, or that there was even any reason to do so.

Somewhere they halted and he hypnotized a vendor to give them ice cream for free, of course ignoring the Doctor and dragging the struggling Time Lord away when he tried to apologize to the confused guy. Instead he pushed the second ice cream cone into his hands and licked his own, while the Doctor glared at the cornet with puckered brows.

"Master?" Finally the Doctor gave in and started to eat the ice cream, before it could melt. "I know you since we were children."

"I'm not so forgetful that you have to remind me." He rolled his eyes.

"I thought you were just playing some game with Roka. Needed her for a plan or something the like. I mean... to my defence, that's what you do all the time... ahem..." He searched for words and happily munched the ice. "Why are you doing all that? Searching for her that long, freeing her from the glitch and then trying to get her smile back..."

Yeah, why was he? It was so useless. People never thanked one for being nice. Quite the opposite apparently. The Master glared at the ice cream as if his gaze could melt it, then he threw it away and thrust his hands inside his pant pockets.

"Like you just said." He shrugged. "It's a game. I'm bored without the drums and that little ape is a nice distraction." Yeah, _that_ was what this was all about. It had been fun following her trail and seeing things with new eyes. "Just a game... Just using her. Of course there is some big scheme. Somewhere... probably. That's what I do, right?" He angrily kicked a pebble away, not even sure where the anger originated from. "That's... who I _am_, isn't it?"

A deep sigh came from the Doctor as he let his shoulders hang low. He stopped and looked the Master up and down, his face unreadable.

"I don't know, Master. _Who_ are you?" He straightened and looked shocked at his own words. "That... I didn't mean... See, that's what I wanted to say. I know you for so long. But I don't... _know_ you. Outside of our fights, that is. I know what a great mind sits in that head of yours. I see what you're capable of doing. To people... _and_ to yourself. But..." He shook his head. "I don' know who the man beneath all that is."

And how could he?

"Yeah," was all the Master offered for an answer, while he glared up to the sky, wishing it to be night, so he could see his beloved stars at least.

Rory knocked against the TARDIS door and jumped back surprised when it opened on its own. All of this was still so new and confusing. Sure, he had spent countless hours researching everything he could about time travel and pocket dimensions and whatnot, but humans only knew so much. And it was unbelievably weird to enter an old police box. Even weirder though, was that no one outside seemed to notice the thing.

Inside he got greeted by the constant machine humming and also the sight of the Master, standing at the console, several tools in hands and obviously still fixing stuff. Or maybe just tinkering. Rory didn't like the man much. He definitely was trouble and he always got the chills when looking him in the eyes. They were so cold and distant. Cruel.

Why did the Doctor let him travel along? Rory didn't understand it. Especially not after what Amy had told him. A person like the Master should stay locked away somewhere safe, where he wasn't able to harm anyone.

"Ahhh, you're back!" The Doctor's voice resounded from beneath the console and a moment later he climbed up. "Where's Amy? Did you two have fun? Ordinary, harmless fun in an ordinary human city with definitely no hidden pubs for aliens." He grinned widely, then raised a concerned eyebrow. "You haven't stumbled in one of those, have you?"

"Errr.... no. No, I don't... think so." He always felt as if his brain worked a hundred times slower when the Doctor was around. Or maybe it was just because he always talked so fast. Rory pointed a thumb behind him. "She wanted to get some takeaway for us all. Will be back in a minute."

"Wonderful!" the Doctor cheered. "Have you two stumbled over Roka by chance?"

"Uhhh... not since this morning, no."

Rory fidgeted around a bit, before deciding to sit down in one of the jump seats. It actually was quite interesting to watch the two tinkering. Those machines were really something new, even though the console looked as if the Doctor had simply snatched away technology from all over different times and wired it together somehow.

A good amount of time passed like this until Rory looked at his wrist watch and noticed that half an hour had gone by already. He sprang up and marched back to the doors. "I... eh... go and have a look. Amy's still not back."

Neither of the two Time Lords paid him much attention, both too occupied by their work. As much as the Master hated to be of help to the Doctor, it was nice to have his mind focused on something. It made the silence so much more bearable.

Actually... there was _too_ much silence right now. And for way too long. The Doctor's pets didn't return for another hour, neither did Roka.

"Doctor!" He threw a nut at the other Time Lord. "Please tell me you demolished the time synchronizer."

"Huh? No!" A whiney protest came from ahead. "Why would I?"

"Because my instinct tells me it's not a good sign that _all_ three haven't shown up yet."


	9. I - Silent darkness

Both Time Lords rushed outside and split to be able to cover more ground. Even like that it would be literally impossible to find their missing companions in a city this big. But sitting around doing nothing was out of the question.

At least for the Doctor. He had promised his friends a nice vacation, not some dangerous adventure again. And he was almost completely - actually _absolutely_ entirely - sure that they would have had at least the decency to give some notice if they had planned to stay out longer.

Why the Master was so eager to help was a mystery too. After their conversation from before the Doctor was even more confused about what to think. None of the Master's actions right now seemed to make any sense. And that in itself was strange enough, considering he actually was way too smart and obsessed with complicated and elaborate schemes to act in such a manner.

No time for that now, he reminded himself and stretched all his senses to hopefully stumble upon something helpful.

Like... Well... this green glowing symbol that was etched into a nearby wall. It didn't seem to be a known letter, but was made of several lines and circles. The Doctor slid a finger over the colour and first sniffed, then licked at it.

Definitely alien. Humans didn't have at least two of the components the colour was made of on earth. His sonic didn't yield any useful results either, after he scanned the symbol with it thoroughly. No useful readings from his surroundings as well... so it was a cold trace. There were so many aliens in this city, it was hard not to stumble upon them.

"Oi, mate!" a drunken sounding voice came from behind. "You'ven't s'me spare coin for me, eh?"

The Doctor spun around and faced an older looking, slightly tattered guy, visibly swaying and definitely not ready for yet another drink.

"No, no money, I'm sorry. But have you seen something strange tonight? Something that is there, but shouldn't be?"

"Ehhh? What'ya talkin'bout?" The man scratched his head.

The Doctor sighed. "Or have you seen either a girl roughly that size, blond hair, green eyes? Or two others. One this size, flaming red hair, you wouldn't miss her. And her fiancé, bigger than her, looks a bit lost all the time."

"Nah, mate. Doesn't ring... ring... no... didn't. Almos'sure. Yep." He stretched a thumb out and continued lurching down the street, past the Doctor and somehow managing not to bump into him.

If only he had prepped the three with trackers! The Doctor frantically thought about a more useful way to find them than blindly stumbling around, turning in circles and... the drunk guy was gone.

Weird. There were no side roads and no house entrances. Nowhere he could have vanished to. And in that state he would have needed so much more time to get to the end of the street.

Curiosity sparked, the Doctor ran in the direction and looked left and right to see if the guy still was somewhere, even though he already knew the answer. A surge of anticipation and excitement rushed through him.

This was impossible!

And impossible usually meant fun.

His gaze wandered around to see if he could make out another way to exit without having to reach the end of the road. But the guy would have to be able to climb up the houses around. Or simply fly away. And even when the Doctor reached the next fork the drunk one was nowhere to be found. How peculiar. He looked around some more, still mostly focused on finding his friends, but also eager to get behind this new mystery. If it even was one. There really were too many aliens in Edinburgh.

There were a few buildings that didn't stand as close to each other as the rest and also were quite old, rather pretty to look at too, with flat roofs and... The Doctor took a closer look and halted in his tracks. There was an actual person, standing at the edge of one roof, not moving, not twitching, only glaring down into the depths to their feet.

He reacted without thinking much and ran towards the building, searched for a fire escape and rushed it upstairs as fast as he could, skipping as many steps on the way as possible and sonicing open a small gate that locked the roof from being accessed. There he slowed down his steps a bit to not scare the person, but still proceeded to approach them.

"Hey," he called out, thinking about how to get them away from the edge without scaring them, or showing that he knew what this was about. Humans with nothing to lose were so easy to scare. He had to be careful "Uh, hello there. I think... I'm... lost! Yes, exactly! Lost. Could you show me how to get to the..." Perplex he blinked a few times, still walking closer.

No doubt.

"Roka?"

She didn't react, not even wince at his voice and certainly not turning around. This was not good. Not at all. "Err... ahem... you better come back there," he tried carefully. "You could slip and it's a really long fall."

Since she still didn't budge nor answer, the Doctor almost jumped the last few steps and grabbed her arm.

Only then did he see that she didn't seem to be completely conscious. Awake, yes, but not aware. He waved a hand in front of her face, but got no reaction. Only when he tried to pull her away from the edge did she suddenly blink and turn her head to him.

"It's calling me," Roka mumbled, her eyes glassy.

"Who is?" Was she hypnotized? Sleepwalking?

For another long moment she said nothing else, but then turned around, glaring down the building. "It says that everything will stop." She closed her eyes. "It won't hurt. Never again."

"What says that? Who is in your head? Come away from there. Slow."

Again the Doctor reached for her arm, but Roka tore it away and her unblinking eyes seemed to look right through him, as if he wasn't even there. He had enough of this and wrapped both arms around her waist, carrying her away from the edge a few meters, before he sat her down again and then reached for her temples to hopefully dispel who- or whatever was controlling her.

It wasn't easy since Roka tried to walk back the same moment the Doctor let go of her. They struggled for a while, then suddenly she let her head hang low and stopped moving all together, finally enabling the Doctor to reach into her mind.

And found nothing.

All of her defences were lowered, not a single mental shield in place. Not even those humans normally possessed naturally. Another person would be able to see absolutely everything right now, and a nasty little part inside him was almost tempted. Only to finally find out what had happened to her. But he resisted the urge and instead continued his search for any foreign force. It definitely seemed as if no one was controlling her. At least not in any conventional way. Which was bad, because it meant he couldn't do anything. Or did she act on her own will in the end? He could only imagine how it had to be for a human to live that long, and also alone.

"What is hurting you, Roka?" he carefully asked. "What do you wish to stop? You can tell me. I'm the Doctor, remember?"

She looked up, glared at the stars above their heads and remained like that for a good minute. Eventually a smile crept onto her face, one that never reached her eyes, one that made the Doctor's hearts clench hurtfully, because he knew this expression all too well; coming from a pain too big and heavy to carry it alone, from something that left one utterly broken.

Roka's hand wandered above her heart to curl to a fist there, and for the first time the Doctor saw that there was something on her skin, lurking out from under her top. Carefully he took her hand away, meeting no resistance, and slightly pulled at the cloth until he could see a small round symbol on her chest. A Gallifreyan symbol. Not drawn, but cut deep into the skin.

The Master's name.

A small shock went through him at the sight. Sure, those cuts had healed a long time ago, but it still must have hurt enormously. And this symbol also acted as some kind of psychic link, enabling the Master to find her all over time and space.

Why in the universe had he done that to her? Judging by the age of the scar, he must have done it before he had gotten sucked into the time lock.

"What went on after you left?" the Doctor eventually asked, not quite sure if he could expect an answer. But hell, _someone_ finally had to tell him!

Again nothing happened, instead Roka turned around and plainly walked back to the edge. The Doctor jumped after her, grabbed her right in time to pull her backwards, before she could do another, final, step.

Both stumbled, which finally seemed to tear her out of this weird state. Puzzled Roka looked around, to the edge that was still close, to the Doctor, who still held both of her arms. Her voice was laced with confusion and also a hint of fear, when she asked, "What... am I doing here?"

"It's okay," the Doctor said determined and dragged her away from the edge some more before he let go of her. "Something had taken control over you as it seems. Nasty little trick. Really not nice. But you're okay now."

Quite the contrary seemed to be the case though. Roka's face went pale and she quenched her eyes shut as if in pain, while wrapping both arms around herself.

"It's incredibly cold," she almost whispered. "What is this, Doctor? It hurts."

"What hurts? Where? Tell me! There still might be something holding onto you." He reached a hand out to touch her shoulder, but she took a step back.

"No... no. I forgot about this." Roka shook her head. "It stopped a long time ago. How can it still hurt so much?" Slowly she sank to her knees, now burying her face in her hands. "Doctor, make it stop. Please. I can't take it any longer."

He had not the slightest idea what she might be talking about and bent down to pull her into a hug at least. She didn't struggle, though also not react in any other way but slightly trembling.

And suddenly she pushed the Doctor away with a force he wouldn't have awaited from her.

"Don't touch me!" she demanded, eyes shimmering wet. "This is all your fault! If only you hadn't waited for us! If only you would have taken anything seriously! You never did! Not my words, not the drums, not anything that happened!"

"What... are you talking about?" He was confused, wanted to help, but had not the slightest idea how.

"You didn't bother!" Roka went on, silent tears now streaming down her face. "You just let him walk into the time lock! Why did you do that, Doctor? Why did you pretend to be his friend, but then you're nothing better than him!"

"Roka... wait!" The Doctor grabbed her shoulders. "I already told you what happened. It was too fast. I didn't realize..."

He paused and looked behind her. Both hearts skipped a beat as he looked into... at... No wait... there wasn't anything. How weird. What had he just been staring at?

The Doctor looked back at Roka and suddenly her eyes went glassy once more, only for a second though, before she simply collapsed and almost fell. He caught her before she could hit the ground, finding her to be completely unconscious now.

How much of what had just happened had been real? How much triggered or even induced by an external force? The Doctor had no idea, but nonetheless her words pained him.

Because they had been filled with truth.

Once too often had he spared the Master, had shot the diamond instead of the other man. He hadn't been able to do it, to kill his oldest friend and the only remaining Time Lord beside himself. Even though he would have deserved it a hundred times and more.

But when the Master had been completely out of his mind, had been filled and controlled by rage at Rassilon, had walked right into the vanishing time corridor to get sucked back to Gallifrey, and therefore into his certain death...

The Doctor had done nothing.

Even though he could have. But this was it. It had been easy. A way to wash his hands clean. A way to make sure the universe and he himself would stay safe. Sacrificing one man to save who knows how many more lives... The Master wasn't a man to change his ways. Wherever he would go, death and destruction would follow.

What else should he have done?

The Doctor lifted Roka up from the ground and carried her back to the TARDIS, his face that of stone, but his hearts bleeding and aching.

What else could he do but to help _now_ at least? How else was it, that he could ever repay this debt to the Master?

It was useless. The city was too big and there wasn't even the slightest hint as to where the dumb humans could have vanished to. Not that he cared much about the Doctor's pets.

The Master kicked some pebbles away and shoved his hands inside his pant pockets, cursing at himself. As if he was looking for them. He knew exactly who he was actually searching for. Even though it wasn't any of his business any longer. He should finally come to terms with that. But right now there could be danger, and as long as he was around, he wouldn't let...

He halted and tilted his head, glaring at the scenery in front of him. Had someone set this up to be found? It were the red haired girl and her cowardly boyfriend. And everything about this reeked like a trap. It was too convenient to simply find them here, sitting at the edge of a decorative fountain on a round and otherwise empty place, seemingly not much aware of their surroundings.

No noises were in the air, no other people, not even animals. Only silence was pressingly heavily on the Master's ears. A sound he still loathed, even after the years he had to get used to it.

Carefully observing his surroundings he stepped towards the two, ears and eyes sharpened. Only when he was almost right in front of them did the red-head suddenly look up and smile at him. She rose and slowly stepped towards the Master.

"Oh, you're here! Great! Come, sit with us. It's such a nice night. So quiet." Her smile got wider, now looking somewhat unnatural. "Don't you enjoy it? This wonderful silence..."

The Master took a step back and observed her sternly. Something was off. Her eyes weren't quite clear, rather a bit foggy. And he was skilled enough in all kinds of mind tricks to know what that meant. With a quick step he was in front of Amy and grabbed her head with both hands, pressing his thumbs against her temples. The woman tried to get away, but the Master gripped tighter, not bothering whether or not it would hurt.

There was nothing.

Confused he let his hands sink and blinked a few times at Amy. Nothing seemed to have a hold of her mind, but her behaviour clearly was unnatural. She even scurried a little closer to him.

"What's wrong? Why do you move away?" Amy put a hand to his chest. "Didn't you want me close?"

A mean grin whizzed over the Master's face. If that was some kind of game those two were playing with him, he didn't understand the rules. Rory still hadn't moved an inch, and that little red-head clearly wasn't interested in him, as she had proven often enough.

Not that this was an issue. He cupped her chin to make her look up.

"Changed your mind, matchstick? What is it?" His grin got wider. "Not interested in your ordinary and boring puppy there? Also not interested in someone who pretends to be a hero to impress clueless little apes like you?"

Amy smiled back and closed the distance between them, nestling against the Master now, head tilted up and eyes twinkling in anticipation. Even now he wasn't entirely sure if this was real or not, but in the end the answer to that question wasn't _his_ problem.

"Good choice, copper head," he purred, resting a hand on her hip. If she wanted some fun, he surely wouldn't deny it to her. Especially not when it meant to piss off the Doctor. "I'm not going to tell you lies. I'm not going to keep you from having fun. Especially not the dangerous kind."

His other hand wandered to her back, holding her firmly in place. Maybe this was wrong, it shot through his head. But it felt too good not to be pushed away for once. There was such a deep desire in her eyes, longing for something more. For _him_. Amy stretched a little, but not enough to touch him. He could feel her single heartbeat, steady, not even slightly sped up.

"Sounds good." Her voice was soft and she slid a finger down his chest. "Who wouldn't say no to that? Who in their right mind would want _you_ anywhere near them?"

"What?!"

"You're a monster. So disgusting." She chuckled and huddled still a little closer.

Abruptly he let go of Amy. Her eyes still had the same weird expression, but her voice suddenly was laced with contempt as she followed each time he took a step away.

"Tell me, Master. Tell me how your twisted mind could think that anyone would ever want _you_."

"Ridiculous," Rory's voice came from behind her. The Master hadn't noticed that he had gotten up. and was now standing behind Amy, his eyes wearing the same fogginess. "Look at you. All you ever do is hurting people."

"Cracking them open and leaving nothing but a broken shell behind."

"So what?" the Master sneered back and finally found his composure again. "It's not as if I'm the only one doing that! I don't _need_ people! Booh! Surprise!" He spread his arms with a nasty grin.

"No, you really don't." Rory shook his head. "Fire and death are all you need."

"Isolation and pain the only things you deserve." Amy once more trod towards him, stretching up and trying to actually kiss him now.

The Master roughly pushed her away and stumbled backwards. "No! I deserve a lot more! What do _you_ know, stupid human? You have no idea who I am!"

"You are the end of time," Rory offered and it sounded like an accusation.

"You are the grim reaper," Amy added in the same tone. "Murdering those you claim to love."

"Shattering them."

"Drain their blood and their minds." Amy chuckled. "It's your fault. You broke her, poisoned her blood and her mind, cut her skin and burned everything else to ashes."

"Liar!" the Master shouted at Amy, grabbed her collar with both hands and hatefully glared at her. "I did nothing! Just this once I didn't, you hear me?!" He shook her in anger, then let go.

Four blaming eyes stared unblinkingly at him. The Master stumbled backwards, trying to ignore the gnawing pain in his chest. But it was too overwhelming and he dropped to his knees, hands clutching his head. It wasn't true... or was it?

"That's not, who I am! It _isn't_! It can't be!" he screamed at them.

But why should that even bother him? It never had before. None of it mattered. He owned the universe! Maybe not yet, but he would one day. And that meant he was allowed to do whatever he wanted. To _whomever_ he wanted.

As if this thought had triggered a response, both humans froze and didn't move any longer. Then suddenly they went completely stiff, first Amy then Rory. And eventually both collapsed to the cobble stone like marionettes whose threads just had been cut.

Silence... heavy and crushing, weighing down on him, making him wish for the drums to be back, just so he wouldn't have to deal with those nasty thoughts. This wasn't him! He wasn't a monster! He hadn't broken her! It couldn't be true!

The Master gritted his teeth and ruffled with both hands through his hair, confused and lost, not knowing what was happening to him. His fingers started to tap his old rhythm onto his head, steadily, until it almost sounded like the drums. Until it...

He jumped to his feet, eyes widened. No... no... Imagination. Nothing but his imagination. There was only silence. Only... nothing else. An illusion. Fainting as abruptly as it had occurred.

The two humans still lay unconscious on the cold ground. They hadn't acted like their normal selves. And even though no one seemed to have controlled their minds directly, there still were enough methods to let them act like this.

A monster? Maybe. Maybe he truly was.

But right now something told him not to leave those two behind here.

All three humans were sleeping on a wide sofa in the library, while the Doctor and the Master exchanged in what condition they had found them. Both leaving out a lot of details, both determined not to let the other see how much this whole ordeal had shook them.

But they knew each other too well to overlook the other's condition.

"Any idea what that was?" the Master asked after a too long pause.

The Doctor shook his head, for once out of words.

"If they don't remember any of this..." the Master continued carefully. "Maybe we shouldn't tell them."

"Yeeeaaah, sure. Hey, you all fell asleep in here. Just like that. No weird stuff happened." He snorted, waving his hands around. "Nah, they wouldn't believe that."

"And what do you want to tell them instead?" Grumbling the Master folded his arms and glared daggers at some random innocent book nearby. "The truth? Including the fact that we have no idea what it actually _was_?"

He didn't get an answer. Roka shifted slightly and seemed to be about to wake up. The Master froze, turning his head towards her and thinking for a moment.

No, indeed... this wasn't any of his business anymore.

"Do whatever you want," he murmured darkly, hurled around and left the Doctor behind to deal with all of that alone.

Rory and Amy started to wake up as well. All three wore the same confused expression when they found themselves in a place they couldn't remember having fallen asleep in.

"Oh, Doctor... what happened?" Amy reached for her head. "I only wanted to get some food for us. And then... can't remember anything."

"Ugh, me neither," Rory mumbled and shook his head. "That's weird."

Both looked at Roka, who was strangely calm. Only after a few seconds did she seem to realize that they actually saw her, and she sat up straight. "I was... just visiting some of my favourite places. Nothing intriguing. No idea when exactly my memory stops."

The Doctor tugged at his bowtie, brows raising and falling down in thoughts. He had no idea what exactly the Master had seen or been told, but it couldn't have been pleasant. There was no way they could tell them the truth.

"You.... erm..." He coughed, finally stopping to maltreat his attire. "I'm afraid it's my fault." With a fresh spark of light the Doctor gestured around, telling, "Amy got takeaway for us all and I thought it would be a nice idea to add in some spices. Err... it was the wrong one. I'm really sorry! Forgot that it has a narcotic effect on... humans. Probably also causes a bit of amnesia..."

"Ohhh, we can't even eat something without having an adventure," Rory complained groaning. "I'm so not made for this."

Amy only chuckled and nudged him with her elbow. "Come on. This is actually quite funny. And nothing bad happened."

"Yeah, this time! Next time he accidentally kills us!"

"No!" the Doctor protested. "Nothing deadly in here. Promise. Eh... you might want to sleep it off though."

Quickly he trod to the sofa and reached a hand out to Amy to help her up. Rory ignored the hand and still didn't look too happy. Instead he lead the way and both left the library, Amy clutching his arm.

"Why did you tell them a lie?" Roka asked calmly and made the Doctor wince a little.

"You remember?" he asked.

"No." She shook her head and got up too. "But the time gap is too big. And you have this look as if you don't want anyone to know something."

The Doctor sighed and smiled a little. "You observed me quite well while living here, didn't you?"

Roka only shrugged. "Not on purpose. Just have a good eye for patterns. And I guess twenty years is enough to learn to read when someone's lying." When the Doctor wanted to say something in protest, she raised her hand to stop him. "And also to know that you would tell, if it were anything you had control over. Or were so important that people had to know."

"Well... I guess... Something was playing mind ricks on the three of you. Made you ramble some nonsense and then left you unconscious. I have no idea what it was or how it did that. But you're not harmed and that's the important part."

Roka nodded. "I won't tell them."

With heavy hearts the Doctor stared at her back while she left the room. Her eyes had been so empty and cold, it made him shiver and remember her words from the roof. He had no idea if he could ever help. His actions had broken apart so much... but he wanted to at least _try_ to make things better.

After all... it was a new face. A completely new Doctor. That had to be worth _something_.


	10. I - Into the woods

"No, Doctor, it's fine, really."

Rory stood there, slightly raised hands and a look on his face that clearly told what he thought about more adventures.

They had rested for a good day, not doing much. Amy had abused the pause to follow Roka everywhere, asking about everything in the TARDIS and trying to find out more about her adventures with the Doctor.

"You can't have lived here for so long and never had something exciting happen!"

"Never claimed that," Roka sighed, and when Amy probed further, she only told, "It was... different back then. _I_ was. And it was risky to come outside. The glitch, you know."

"So, what did you see _when_ you went outside?"

For a good while Roka had to think about that. There wasn't anything too special she remembered. At least nothing she deemed worthy to be told. And especially nothing quite as exciting as the past days. Actually... back then she had been a lot like she was now. A bit too calm and indifferent. Hollow.

Not at all like the people the Doctor usually took along, and not for the first time Roka wondered if he would have allowed her to stay would he have been able to remember her long enough to learn about her character.

Eventually Amy gave up when she got no proper answers. And a day later the Doctor seemed to have a new plan for his not so secret operation: Creating the perfect date for Amy and Rory.

"But it will be fun!" he objected, glaring intensely at the defensive Rory. "And absolutely, perfectly ordinary and normal! Nothing to go wrong there. Nevokarti is a peaceful planet, no predatory life forms, not even mosquitoes!" The Doctor's waved around excitedly as he went on, "Temperatures are constantly nice for humans, at daytime at least. Never too hot, never too cold. And the forest area is stunningly _beautiful_!"

"Yes, yes, I get that. But Doctor..." Rory took a breath. "Why do we have to go _camping_ there?"

"Camping?" Amy sounded excited, just strolling in with Roka in tow. "I haven't been camping since I was twelve! That's a cool idea!"

"Not really," Roka grumbled from behind, clutching a coffee mug. "Kinda looses it's magic when you live like that for some decades."

"Only because you did it all alone," Amy lectured. "With us though... it will be soooo much fun!"

She clapped her hands and ran to the Doctor, demanding to know where they would go and when, while Rory made the impression of only wanting to go home. He exchanged a glance with Roka and both sighed and shrugged eventually, when it got clear that Amy was completely taken away by the idea. Of all the companions Roka had learned to know, Amy certainly was the most demanding.

"Where's this Master guy?" Rory eventually asked her.

"No idea." Roka glanced around the room, but he was nowhere to be found.

"Haven't seen him since yesterday," the Doctor chimed in. "But as long as nothing acts weird, he's probably not doing too much harm."

"Well..." Amy beamed at everyone. "He's a creep anyway. Maybe he got bored and left."

"Maybe... he just wasn't in the mood to be swarmed by inferior apes," a sulky voice came from behind them.

The Master wore an expression somewhere between disgust and annoyance when he strode in, letting his eyes wander over the group. He looked even more ill-tempered than usually, leaning with folded arms against a banister.

"Ah, perfect!" the Doctor cheered. "Seems we can go!"

"Without me," the other Time Lord grumbled, tapping a finger against his arm in a steady rhythm of four.

"Good! No one wants you around anyway." Amy poked out her tongue and walked past him in such a provocative manner that Roka actually was a little surprised that she didn't get killed for it. But the Master simply pretended she didn't exist.

Slightly agitated the Doctor raised a hand and coughed a bit. "I err... You're not going to stay in here on your own, Master. Don't look at me like that! You have a pretty impressive track record of betraying my trust!"

That finally let a small, smug smile appear on the Master's face and he chuckled darkly. "Well, why not. A forest is as good as any other place to stir some trouble."

The Doctor had been right. The forests of Nevokarti were truly a sight. Lush and brimming with small wildlife, trees and plants in all shapes and colors everywhere. Most of them green, like on earth, but sometimes there also was a bit of turquoise and even purple. The temperatures were exactly right, so they didn't freeze, but also not sweat too much from all the walking.

Evening was about to draw closer and their trail lead in a wide circle back to the TARDIS. At roughly half of the way there was supposed to be a nice spot to set up camp, according to the Doctor. He almost constantly blabbered on about the different plants and animals here and how this planet used to be a hideout for intergalactic smuggling some millennia ago.

Right now they passed a set of thin waterfalls, crashing down overgrown hills and into a steam-covered turquoise basin far below them. They had to use a definitely too thin path to get the full view, but it was stunning enough to compensate for the balance act.

Rory stretched his arms in the air and soaked in the picture. If all their travels would be like this he actually wouldn't mind them. It also was a delight to see that Amy was also happy with the choice of location.

When she was happy, he was. And that would never change, no matter what. Even though the thought contained some painful possibilities. Since the Doctor had appeared in their life Rory had been in constant doubt if he really was the right man for her. The dangerous parts had, admittedly, also been fun. In a way. But in the long run, Rory would be glad if they wouldn't have to run for the rest of their lives. He was more the type to eventually settle down, get a bunch of kids and have a happy, ordinary everyday life.

Thinking about all that he fell a bit behind, finally realizing that he was now trotting behind everyone. The Doctor, silent for once, even though he'd surely find something new to talk about soon. What a strange man, not even human and nothing but a figment of Amy's imagination... for the longest part of their lives. Now, suddenly, he was very real and did his best to put everything upside down. Even so, Rory trusted him for some reason. It was more like a gut instinct, but he simply _knew_ the Doctor would never let them down when it came to the worst.

Then there was Roka, and Rory really wasn't sure what he should think about that woman, that looked like she was still underage even though counting two hundred years. Somehow his senses were ringing when she was around, and he didn't quite trust her. Maybe because she seemed to have some weird morals, maybe because she was so aloof around everyone. Or maybe it was simply because, in some ways, she reminded him a lot of someone else, even though she at least seemed to lack his tendency for cruelty.

The last member of their mismatched group. This Master. During the day he had done his best to down the mood by being sulky. But here and there he also had played some, surprisingly harmless, pranks. Like vanishing and then jumping out from somewhere, putting a spider on Amy's head or nudging the Doctor into some thorny bushes.

Other than that he was outright disturbing to be around, making Rory's hair stand on end. The few things he had overheard about him were enough to question the Doctor's judgment, and he absolutely didn't like seeing him walking around without... at least handcuffs or something the like. Better yet, bound in chains and secured safely somewhere inside the TARDIS. Or even better, in some dark corner of the universe where no one would ever be able to set him free ever again.

Rory sped up his steps to get closer to Amy and to grow the distance between him, her and the Master.

Finally they reached the spot where they wanted to set up camp for the night. An almost perfectly round clearing spread in front of them, small and overgrown with mostly purple and turquoise plants.

"Aha! That looks lovely! Don't you all think?" the Doctor cheered and was already about to set down his backpack and fish out all sorts of things.

He and Roka had been carrying all the stuff they would need. Tents, sleeping backs, some food and a few other things. When the Doctor had spoken of camping, he obviously had meant it. Roka could imagine he had read about it somewhere and was now eager to try it out. It was the sort of thing he would do.

Rory helped her setting up the tents, while the Doctor and Amy went deeper into the woods to collect wood and stones for a fire. The Master was nowhere to be found, probably hiding from any task anyone could give him. Maybe it was for the better, since there was no way of telling if he wouldn't manipulate things.

"Uh, I think you guys missed something." Rory arched a brow when he couldn't find another tent. There only were two of those and only three sleeping bags.

"No, they don't sleep much," Roka explained and eyed her own area. It was a rather tiny tent, just spacious enough to fit herself inside. It reminded her of the one she had dragged around for almost a century.

"Oh," made Rory, and since the others were still gone, an awkward silence spread between the two. "Uh... you've... been doing this a lot, right?" he finally asked carefully.

Roka shrugged and dragged some bigger logs nearer together. "Guess so. Sounds more exciting than it actually is, honestly."

"Heh, tell that Amy. I think she believes you were stumbling from one adventure to the next."

"That's not too wrong either," she admitted, sat down on one of the logs and stared into the darkening sky, admiring the stars that started to show themselves above their heads. "Depends on what you deem adventurous. Places like this," she waved a hand around, "are definitely exciting in their own way. It looks so familiar and foreign at the same time. There are places that are almost indistinguishable from earth, and others that are so different, that it's like wading through a dream."

"Alright... that actually does sound amazing." Rory sighed and placed himself on another log. "Guess I simply lack the bravery for such a life. Quite in opposite to Amy."

Roka glanced up and gave him a thoughtful look, then she slightly shook her head. "I'm not good with people, you know," she mumbled. "But I sense you wouldn't let her down, no matter what happens. She can be lucky to have you."

"Ah.... uh.... thanks." A bit flustered Rory rubbed his neck.

For a good while they stayed silent. Roka had the feeling he wanted to say a lot more, but didn't trust her enough to tell it. A weird thought somehow, since she had nothing to gain from betraying any of them, nor any reason at all actually.

The silence got broken, when the Doctor came back, loaded with stones that he placed in a wide circle. "We'll have a nice and big fierly sparkingly fire for when it gets colder." It clearly was fun for him to organize all of this. "I got us some marshmallows! Heard humans love to roast those squishy things. Also have some other food items. And after that..." He jumped to his feet and rummaged around in one of the backpacks. "...we can tell each other creepy stories!"

"Isn't that more... what kids do?" Rory blinked puzzled at the Doctor and glanced around. "And where's Amy?"

"Taking in the nice atmosphere of course. And collecting more fire wood. She insisted on doing that part. No worries, Rory! There hardly could be any safer place in this part of the galaxy."

It was a lot more fun than Amy had expected. At first the Doctor's idea had sounded a bit silly, and if she was honest, it still did. But this forest was stunningly beautiful to look at, and she couldn't remember ever having seen such a peaceful place before.

The settling night was calm and cool, the sounds and smells familiar and foreign at the same time, giving everything a... well... _alien_ vibe.

Amy chuckled at the thought and bent down to pick up another twig. As a child this had always been her task, and now she enjoyed letting this old memory surface. She grabbed a few more stray sticks from the ground before straightening, and letting out a small surprised squeak, the wood almost falling back to the ground.

In the shadows stood a figure, clad in black. Only a few seconds later did she recognize it as the Master and relaxed, even though only a little.

"At least _someone_ is scared of me," he mocked with a widening smirk, stepping closer.

Amy retreated a bit, raising her head in a sassy manner. "What do you want?"

"Getting away from those idiots?" He shrugged. "Not going to work my ass off for any of you."

"Work?" Amy snorted. "It's called fun. F. U. N. You should try it. Certainly better than running around, playing pranks and hypnotizing people."

Maybe the last part hadn't been so wise to speak out, she realized when a malevolent grin formed on the Master's face. As smooth and silent as a cat he had suddenly closed the distance between them, now towering above Amy in quite the threatening manner. She gulped and thought about screaming for the Doctor. If only she hadn't walked so far away.

"You humans are so weak against me, it's almost no fun to play with your heads." The Master cocked his own to one side, still grinning and now leaning down to Amy, way too close for her taste. "I could let you do whatever I want. Want to try?"

"The Doctor will throw you out!" she squeaked, frozen in place from a sudden unknown fear.

"As if I'd care." The Master grabbed Amy's collar and glared into her eyes. She could feel a weird tingling sensation in her head. Her hands started to shake and she barely noticed how all the wood fell to the ground. "Don't feel too safe just because the Doctor is around." He chuckled darkly.

Then, suddenly, he let go of Amy and slightly pushed her away. The tingling sensation vanished and relieve flooded her, but she also wondered why she was unscathed. From the things Roka had told her, he wasn't the type to hesitate when it came to doing harm.

Her thoughts got disrupted at the sight of the Master freezing and looking around as if he had sensed something, or someone. Slowly he put a finger to his lips, gesturing her to be silent.

Was that some sort of game now? There was nothing dangerous on this planet after all. But somehow Amy had a feeling that he wasn't fooling her right now, so she didn't move or speak. She couldn't make out anything, beside the slight rustling of leaves that surrounded them all the time.

It also didn't help that it was almost entirely dark now, making Amy curse once more at herself for wandering off so far. The others were roughly half an hour away from her position, but she stubbornly had insisted on staying to take in some more of the peaceful atmosphere, that now changed to being thick and foreboding.

The Master got something out of his jacket that looked like a sonic screwdriver and aimed it around. Here and there Amy thought to see shadows moving now, scurrying around in the darkness, but staying at a good distance as if to mock them. The Master slowly stepped backwards, his screwdriver stretched out.

A second later something materialized right in front of them and Amy could no longer hold in a scream. It was a horrible mass of black smoke and slimey skin, that seemed to be in constant movement, roughly resembling a wolf. The creature had no eyes, but six or more thick legs and a huge snout, that hung open, revealing sharp blinking teeth. It sniffed around in the air and let out a weirdly hoarse shriek towards the Master, moving it's legs in a way that indicated it was still contemplating when and how to attack.

"Walk backwards," the Master whispered, doing exactly that. He held out a hand to keep Amy behind himself, his other hand still aiming the screwdriver at the strange abomination.

"What is that?" she hissed back. "I thought there were no..."

"Shut up. It doesn't hear, but it feels vibrations."

"Don't tell me what to do!" Amy protested and glared at the creepy creature that was slowly approaching them, it's moist shimmering skin glinting in the pale moonlight.

"Oh?" the Master sneered. "Rather want me to feed you to that thing? Maybe I should... would buy me enough time to run."

The monster stalked through the plants, its maw opening and closing. Now it sat on its hind legs, revealing long sharp claws, while more black smoke emanated from its skin.

"Okay, okay... but, what do we do?"

A few dreadful seconds of silence let her heart rate skyrocket, especially as the thing started to crawl closer with unnatural, jerky movements, letting out another of its weird shrieks.

"Stay behind me, idiot!" The Master growled, when Amy leaned past him. "And no sudden movements. If I'm right this thing..."

It's head snapped up and right into their direction. A sickening wet sound came from it, then it suddenly threw its head back, only to shoot it forward, spitting something at the two.

Instinct now took over. The Master pushed Amy out of the way and at the same time shot his laser screwdriver at the nightmarish abomination. Every hit elicited a painful shriek from it, accompanied by a fizzling sound, when its skin got burned. But still it jerked closer, smoke and black blood pooling from its body, evaporating before it dripped to the ground. A second later it tensed all muscles to jump at the Master.

Frantically he moved around to evade the sharp claws, while shooting more laser beams. Almost all of them hit, slowing down the thing more and more until it could barely move at all at last. Only then did it let out another blood curdling shriek, before it finally hobbled away, losing a leg and even more black steaming blood on its way.

Panting the Master stood there, making sure the creature wouldn't return, before he hurled around to look after Amy. Without that bloody human he surely would have gotten away a lot easier. And why in the universe had he hesitated to throw her right into the monster's maw?

"Amy!" a voice called out. "Where are you? We're waiting for you!"

Seconds later Rory stumbled into the scene, followed by Roka. Both froze in place when they found Amy lying on the ground, motionless. Rory had a flashlight with him and shone it into her way too pale face.

"Oh, no no no, what happened here?" He kneeled down next to her.

"A shik'hach," the Master only said. "Spat a poisoned dart at her. But she'll be fine. It just puts their prey to sleep."

"What are you talking about?" Roka squinted her eyes at him, not believing a word. "There's nothing dangerous here. The Doctor wouldn't have left her alone otherwise."

Now Rory shot up, racing towards the Master with fury in his eyes. Roka was surprised that he was able to look like that at all. "What have you done to her?!" he shouted.

"Me?" The Master laughed out. "Well, I was so dumb to not throw her right in the way for that thing to eat her."

"What thing?! There is no danger here!" Rory went on.

Roka took a glance around. Some grass was bent and broken, but that could also stem from Amy rummaging around for fire wood. Actually... that she was asleep could mean only one thing.

"You hypnotized her, right?"

"What? No!" the Master protested. "I just told you..."

"Hypnotized?!" Rory snapped and looked as if he was about to murder his opponent. "What did you force her to do, you monster?! If you laid as much as finger on her, I swear..."

The Master pushed Rory away with a lot more force than would have been necessary, sending the man stumbling back and landing on his bum. It took Rory a surprised second, but then he heaved himself off the ground and strode to Amy, to shove her up his arms and wordlessly carry her away.

"Typical," the Master grumbled. "Do something good just for once, and everyone gets mad at you."

Roka let out a snort and crossed her arms. "And who do you hope is stupid enough to believe that silly story? It's quite obvious what happened."

She shook her head and followed Rory, leaving the Master back on his own. The only thing about this whole ordeal that didn't quite fit into the picture was that he tried to deny his actions instead of bragging with them as usually. But that meant nothing. It was just another one of his dumb games.

"Roka..." he called out, before she was too far away.

She inwardly cursed at herself for halting and turning around. He hadn't moved, just silently stood there, one hand stemmed into his side. But something in his voice just now had alerted her.

"Wait a second," the Master mumbled, just loud enough for her to hear. His voice sounded strained not as it should.

"What is it now?" Roka asked, still irritated.

"I'm not lying."

"Yeah, and I'm actually a Time Lord." She rolled her eyes. "Is that all?"

The Master heavily leaned against a tree, his breath going faster than it should, one hand still pressed against his side and a pained grin curving his lips.

"No, I mean it." He waved her over.

Roka sighed and stepped to him, now realizing that he looked as pale as Amy had before. He clearly wasn't leaning against that tree for comfort. And when he pulled his hand away, Roka sharply sucked in some air.

Illuminated by the now bright moonlight, she could clearly make out two deep cuts, shimmering wet through the cloth of his ripped shirt, obviously stemming from sharp claws of some sort. The wounds were deep and bleeding heavily, red flowing down his side, already forming a puddle at the Master's feet where the earth could no longer take in more liquid.

"Oh shit," Roka mumbled.

"Yah, that's what I thought too." The Master sunk together some more, suddenly no longer able to keep himself upright.


	11. I - Blood and fire

The Master feebly sunk together at the tree, blood leaving his body in alarming gushes with every breath.

Roka's instincts awoke immediately. Now was not the time for emotions, but for actions.

"Lay down," she ordered and squatted down next to him.

Her heart was racing, adrenalin pumping through her veins like ice. Hastily she rummaged around in her jacket pockets and found a small metal box and a flashlight, that was barely as long as her index finger.

Panting the Master slid down and rolled onto his back, not even protesting. Roka shone the small light at him, finding his pale face covered in sweat. The light wandered to the wound and once more she sucked in a sharp breath. The cuts reached deep into his flesh, bleeding heavily and revealing things that clearly shouldn't be visible.

"Well... I always wanted to know what's going on inside you," she remarked in an attempt to lighten the mood a bit.

The Master managed to let out a weak chuckle, making Roka hope his superior biology would help here.

"I need to stitch you up... but I can't see if there are any internal bleedings..."

"Don't you dare," he groaned. "Not letting you operate on me!"

Roka sighed and opened the small metal box to get out a stable needle and some thread. She always carried it around with her... just in case.

"Give me your laser screwdriver. Don't have time to start a fire."

"Not... gonna... happen." His voice was barely audible, but apparently he still possessed enough strength to make a fuss.

Roka grunted, took off her gloves and pulled up his shirt to have better access to the wounds. "Well, then I'll have to do this with a cold needle. Not very pleasant, believe me. And I'm rather sure not even a Time Lord can survive a too severe blood loss... which can't be too far away, judging by the mess you're creating here."

With shaky hands the Master finally reached inside his jacket and pulled out his laser screwdriver. Two times he almost dropped it, before he managed to change some settings and then handing it to Roka. "Don't mess me up," he ground out.

"We'll see about that," she shot back while heating the needle. "Maybe I stitch the Doctor's TARDIS onto your belly."

To her surprise there was no snarky remark, showing her that the situation was probably a lot worse than the Master tried to make her believe. Roka handed him back the screwdriver. "Bite down on it. This will hurt."

As soon as he did she took her flashlight between her teeth and hurried to get to work, setting the stitches carefully, but also fast, while more and more blood gushed from the wounds, covering her hands in no time. The beast must have caught a really bad spot. Luckily not an artery, but still bad.

Finally she was done, seeing with relieve that her work had the intended effect. If not, she additionally would have cauterized the cuts, but for now it seemed to suffice.

"Done ruining me?" the Master pressed out through gritted teeth, pocketing his laser screwdriver. He hadn't let out the slightest whimper even though this must have hurt badly without any narcotics.

"For now. Can't do much more, I'm afraid."

Grunting and panting he heaved himself onto his elbows, throwing a sceptic glance down at her work. Somehow he managed to drag himself backwards against a nearby tree, leaning against it, half sitting, half sunken together, still not looking too god.

"Definitely internal bleedings," he grumbled after a moment. "Hell, that sodding thing really got me."

Concerned Roka wiped her hands and the needle clean at some grass and pocketed it, before she took another look at the Master. She didn't need her flashlight to see how pale he was. It was not unlikely that her effort had been in vain, leaving Roka with a weird, unpleasant feeling she couldn't quite name.

"Well... if it's too bad, you can at least regenerate." She shrugged, not sure what else to say.

His eyes flung open, darted towards her and then to the moon above. "Yeah, might do that," he mumbled toneless. And after a pause he added, barely audible, "Or might not... doesn't matter."

Perplex Roka blinked at him, mulling over that statement for a moment, before asking, "Still into resurrection?" It was supposed to be a joke, but she had the feeling it didn't quite work.

The Master chuckled darkly and shook his head. "Never again."

"But... then... if you don't regenerate..."

There was no answer, no movement. A heavy silence hung in the air all of a sudden as Roka slowly came to understand what he meant.

"That's... new," she muttered, feeling a weirdly cold sting run through her body. "You were the last person I'd ever awaited to be suicidal."

The Master placed a shaking hand over the wound, his chest still rising and falling with rapid breaths. "Never said I was," he brought out weakly and shook his head. "You were right though... facing death... accepting it once... And now it's gone. The fear. It's just not there anymore." His head dropped back at the tree and he closed his eyes. "That's... scarier than anything I ever experienced before."

Roka stayed silent at that, remembering when she had told him exactly that, so long ago when he hadn't been able to comprehend why the prospect of her own death never seemed to frighten her. Quite in opposite to himself. Through the Doctor Roka knew what ridiculous measures the Master had taken just to stay alive, never accepting the mere thought of his possible end.

Hearing words like these out of his mouth now stirred something inside her, stung like a sharp needle in her mind. Slowly she got up, deciding to ignore this weird feeling and instead go and fetch some help.

"I go and get the Doctor."

The Master tried to heave himself off the ground, but apparently wasn't able to, having lost too much blood to be mobile in any way right now. "Don't go away," he muttered. "That thing's still around. You wouldn't know it's there until it's too late."

"Then why hasn't it come back already?" Roka glanced down at the wet spots of the Master's blood that were glinting in the moonlight. So much of it... it was a miracle that he was still conscious. "Shouldn't this mess here get it back?"

"I got it at least as bad as it got me." He grinned weakly. "Don't think it's up for a hunt. But you could stumble upon it. That wouldn't be so good."

She let out a deep sigh, not entirely convinced by his words. First of all, she could fight. Secondly, there was nothing she could do right now, but the Doctor surely would be able to offer further assistance. Speaking of whom... why wasn't he here yet to look for them? Was Amy still asleep, leaving the two men to be convinced it had been the Master's doing?

Not impossible. However, Amy couldn't stay asleep forever. Sooner or later she would be able to tell the others what had truly occurred. But until then it might be too late for the Master.

"Don't you have some Time Lord tricks up your sleeve to heal yourself?" she asked, turning towards him again. "At least enough to stabilize you."

He nodded and sat up straight, but not without visible effort. "I can... it's similar to sleep. Slows down some of my body functions... Concentrate all my energy on the wounds..."

"Then do that. I'll get a fire going."

Roka collected some wood and stones, arranging everything in a small circle, before she got out flint stones. Living without a roof for the most part of her life had taught her to carry a selection of important items with her at all times.

When the flames delightedly licked the wood and sent out a pleasant warmth, she slumped down in front of it, a good distance away from the Master, but close enough to keep an eye on him. He was breathing slow now, head sunken down to his chest.

Roka really hoped this sleeping state would help, and at the same time wondered why she even bothered. He had brought her nothing but pain. And even if not... too much time had passed for her. There was nothing left but emptiness in her heart, cold and dark. She couldn't bring back the person she had been back then, not even for a second. Young and naive, desperately clinging to the only person who hadn't forgotten her.

For a long while she just numbly stared into the crackling flames, her eyes following the flickering orange, chasing the flying embers. She felt cold and suddenly more lonely than all the years before. The glitch had prevented her from getting close to anyone, and eventually she had been able to accept it, to make the best of this fact, and not to dwell on it much.

But now there were people around, all able to remember.

And still, she didn't belong to any of them. The Doctor always was his own person, and Roka had only been living in his TARDIS because he had never remembered her long enough to throw her out. And there was too much separating her from the cheerful Amy and shy Rory. They were nice people, but lived in a world so completely different from her own that they would never be able to understand each other.

Even without the glitch, Roka would always stay a stranger. No matter to whom.

Somewhere sunken deep into those thoughts she slipped away into shards of dreams, hovering around her like torn paintings, showing images of her life, her past. All the things she had left behind and some of which were entirely forgotten. She vaguely dreamed of an evening on a snowy planet, where a swarm of glowing butterfly drones had raised towards the sky, spreading among the stars, bursting into green flames and forming the image of a crow. The Master, holding her hands, asking if she wanted to come with him, to conquer the universe, to be whoever they wanted to be, not caring about rules or morals.

She couldn't have been happier to agree.

When she snapped awake the images still lingered for some seconds, deepening the icy cold in her heart. Roka almost regretted having gotten the augmentation. Right now she was very eager to forget about these long lost feelings and the memories accompanying them.

With a glance upwards she saw the moon had moved a bit. She couldn't have dozed for long. Maybe an hour, not more. A quick glance sideways showed her that the Master was still asleep, head tilted slightly backwards, leaned against the tree.

Something was odd about the picture though, and it took Roka almost a minute to realize that he didn't move at all.

Not even breathing.

Roka shot to her feet, ice running through her veins all of a sudden. With a few quick steps she was in front of the Master and squatted down, fumbling for a pulse. The skin was cold to the touch and as pale as his face.

Nothing.

With a racing heart she let go of him and jolted away as if something had hit her. The Movement brought her off balance, sending her to the ground, where she crawled backwards a bit, eyes glued to the motionless body in front of her.

The whole picture was surreal, impossible.

"That's not true..." she breathed, the moment stretching into a gruesome eternity.

With trembling movements she got herself to her knees and slid back in front of the Master, her hands suddenly shaking, stretching out to... she didn't even know and let them sink again, grabbing the lapels of his collar.

"No... No, no, no!" She tore at him, now remembering his words from before. She had thought them to be empty and only to scare her. Never had she, even for a second, awaited that he really would just...

"Why didn't you regenerate?" Hot tears sprang to her eyes, but not leaving them. Roka wasn't able to comprehend what she saw, nor what she felt. "It's not true," she muttered again, glaring desperately at his still face."It can't be... It's not possible. Don't you dare."

A sob shook Roka, her hands clutching his shirt tighter as she lowered her head. Her insides felt like bathed in acid, shards of memories cutting her mind. Everything hurt, a lump clogging her throat, the corners of her eyes burning. It couldn't be. It simply couldn't. Not like this.

Seconds stretched to an eternity, bringing time to a painful halt. Reality seemed to fall apart in a way Roka had never experienced before, leaving her hurt and confused, unable to move or even think.

And then a barely audible groan pierced her ears, making her head snap back up, eyes wide with disbelieve.

"What are you doing there?" the Master's groggy voice greeted, his half opened eyes wandering to her hands, then to her shocked face.

A few times she only blinked at him, her brain too slow for all of this. "What... how?" Roka mumbled perplex, glaring down at his evenly puzzled face. "You were ice cold, no pulse, not breathing..."

His eyes glinted with sudden understanding and he chuckled quietly, somehow managing to grace his features with a somewhat smug look. "Told you I'm slowing some things down. Maybe should have warned you how that will look... Now let go of me."

But Roka couldn't. Her hands clutched his shirt even tighter, her voice trembling, when she murmured, "I... I thought you were dead."

"Sorry to disappoint you," he mocked and tried to loosen her grip from him. Only when he finally saw the haunted look in her eyes did he sink back down, quirking an eyebrow. "Didn't you still hate me some minutes ago?"

She raised her head and locked eyes with him, unbelievable relief flooding her when she saw some color had returned to his face. She didn't care what he might do if she didn't move away, didn't care about anything at all right now, and, very slowly, she shook her head.

"Never did..." she admitted, allowing herself to realize it to be true for the first time. She barely got out any words, the pain still sitting too deep. "I... just hate that you popped back into my life like that after all this time," she stated accusingly with a trembling voice, "thinking that _nothing_ has changed for me. That you made me a prisoner for no reason... and are now dragging me places I don't even want to be."

Her hands gripped his shirt so tightly now, her knuckles went white. With gritted teeth and squinted eyes she bent down as if in pain, the lump in her throat almost choking her. The shock from before still sat too deep in her bones for her to say anything else. Vaguely she felt his hands around hers, carefully loosening her fingers from him. Without that halt she sunk together on her knees, letting the few stubborn tears roll over her face and wrapped both arms around herself.

"You make no sense," the Master huffed.

"I don't want you to _die_," she breathed out eventually. "You can't do that to me... not again."

There was no answer as her words hung between them like an impenetrable veil. A few moments later the Master hesitantly reached out a hand to cup the side of her face, his thumb tenderly wiping away a stray tear.

"You didn't lie," he stated quietly, applying slight pressure to Roka's chin to make her look up. "Once you said you'd cry for me... I could never believe it." A tired smile whizzed over his face. "That day you wanted me to show you how time feels, remember?"

She did, the images as clear as if it had been yesterday. He had shared his mind with her, a part of himself.

He chuckled a bit, shaking his head. "Should have kissed you then. I wanted to... But I thought you'd vanish anyway."

Perplex she blinked at him. That had been a long time before they had come close to one another at all. She hadn't been aware of it, although a good amount of his actions from these days started to make a whole lot more sense all of a sudden.

"I'm selfish, you know that. I didn't want to chase something I'd lose anyway. That's why I had to ask for your life. I wanted to at least remember." His eyes closed and his breath got a little heavier, his face contorting from obvious pain. He raised a hand to place it above Roka's heart, above the mark he had cut into her skin once. "I'm sorry I did that to you," he mumbled weekly. "I really am. Just when I learned you wouldn't vanish... I thought you wanted to leave me. It made me so angry."

New tears sprang into her eyes, they were impossible to hold back. Memories were flooding her mind, of a time long lost and she clutched his hand, no longer sure she wouldn't just burst at any moment.

"It hurt..." she let out shakily and barely audible. "For such a long time I thought you were gone. Died with the others on Gallifrey. I... I didn't know how to... it just hurt so much. I couldn't bare it, wouldn't have survived. I had to... I _had_ to forget you."

The indefinable depths of his eyes glinted in the faint light of the fire, reminding Roka once more how different he looked, now that insanity had left him. He wasn't the same person anymore, and neither was she. They were two pieces of a broken world that would never again exist in the same way it once had.

The Master lowered his eyes and seemed to think about something, a pained expression crossing his face for a second, stemming from more than only the wound.

"Well... shouldn't be a surprise that I'm not a very considerate person." A lazy smile curved his lips, trying to downplay his exhaustion. "Never thought about... how it might have been for you." He retreated his hand and shifted to sit up a little straighter, and leaned forward. "But be assured, I won't die. Not ever. That's a promise."

Roka glanced up at him, her emotions finally calming down a bit. She flinched slightly, but didn't move away when he bent towards her, slowly, stroking a thumb over her cheek. Only the crackling sounds of the fire filled the silence as they stared at each other, both knowing they could never bring back what had been lost. The Master slowly leaned a little closer to cup her chin and carefully kissed away a tear from her eye.

"Doesn't matter who you are today." His voice was unfamiliarly soft and warm. "I decided a long time ago to never hurt you again, my little crow." He let go of her and leaned back at the tree with an amused smirk. "And I can't die, knowing you're out there somewhere, some_when_... So irredeemably daft to actually shed tears for someone like me."

Roka's heart made a little surprising jump and a smile twitched in the corners of her mouth. "Remember, my life span is basically infinite," she mumbled.

"Sounds good to me." The Master winked, but could no longer hide his state.

Roka lifted his shirt, shining her flashlight at the wound. "Might be infected," she murmured.

He only nodded and shifted to lean back at the tree again. "It won't kill me." A smug smile managed to grace his face for a moment. "But I need to sleep a little longer. Will you keep watch? The fire should keep the beast away, but..."

"Okay." Roka nodded. "But you regenerate if it gets too bad!"

"Mhm...." he grumbled. "I like this face though."

Roka smacked his arm and got back a week grin and a poked out tongue.

"Don't worry, little crow. You won't get rid of me so fast."

"Stop, calling me that," she grumbled back sourly and folded her arms. "I still can't stand you."

A wide smirk was the only answer, before the Master got back into his weird comatose sleep. Even with the newly gained knowledge it was a creepy sight, however, now she trusted him not to endanger his own life at least.

At first she wanted to move back to her previews spot on the fire, but then she decided to stay at the Master's side. Just in case of unforeseen... whatevers. And really, absolutely, certainly not because she couldn't bear the thought of being too far away from him right now.


	12. I - Night in the TARDIS

The crackling fire lulled Roka into a light slumber. Never did she leave her place at the Master's side and when she heard a small noise from his direction, she immediately snapped wide awake to hear a weak chuckle from him.

"You guarded me?" he brought out, still not sounding too healthy, but obviously strong enough to joke around.

"No," Roka grumbled and her arms over her knees, throwing a venomous glance in his direction. "Just thought, when that thing comes back I can feed you to it and run."

"Sure... and that after crying so loud." He stuck out his tongue, clearly being on the winning side in this small duel of words.

She already regretted having lost her temper before, seeing the amused twinkle in his eyes. Already there was a mean response forming in her head, when they heard twigs snapping nearby.

"Ah, the cavalry is arriving," the Master sneered.

Behind them orange light shone through the darkness and faint voices reached through the vegetation before the Doctor came in sight, a torch in hand, closely followed by Amy.

"Oh, finally!" she let out. "I was so afraid I'd never find this spot again. Good thing you made a fire."

Roka quickly shot to her feet and got a few steps reach between her and the Master. The Doctor's gaze wandered over the whole scenario.

"So much blood!" he exclaimed in shock and rushed towards the Master. "Are you alright? You're wounded badly, aren't you?"

"Do I really look anything even close to alright to you?" he groaned back. "You know... now that I have to see your face, I think I'm doomed."

The Doctor let out a deep sigh, handed Amy the torch and reached down, grabbing the Master's arm and helped him off the ground. It was clear that he might be out of imminent danger, but far from stable, visibly swaying and barely able to stay on his feet. Quickly the Doctor took his arm and lay it over his own shoulder.

"Och, come on, Doctor. That's more humiliating than leaving me here," the Master rebelled, but was either too weak or unwilling to actually stay put, since he did not make an attempt to struggle.

"Amy told us what happened," the Doctor explained, walking slow and careful. "Oh, poor Rory isn't happy. Really not. Not at all."

"Yah, I noticed."

"Good thing I didn't sleep forever," Amy threw in. "Didn't even know what creature that was. It just went all black all of a sudden, and next thing I see is my Rory's worried face above me."

"I'm so sorry about this, really," the Doctor apologized. "It's almost impossible for this thing to be here. It's not their planet at all! Normally they only appear in nebulas of the felctrom category, and even there the systems have to meet..."

"Ugh, spare us," the Master groaned. "It's enough to know they aren't from here. I bet someone dropped that thing off or forgot it."

"No... Nooo..." the Doctor let the word fade into a worried sigh. "We found another crack nearby. One like that in Amy's room. It lead to the home world of those creatures. So there might be more. And there not being other predators around makes this the perfect habitat. No one to share its food with. Was probably quite shocked to see some creatures as big as you two there."

"Good thing you closed the crack," Amy remarked and shuddered visibly at the memory of it.

For the most part they walked back in silence. The Doctor leading, with the Master's arm draped over his shoulder. The Master, probably putting a lot more weight on the other one than was really necessary. Amy, constantly biting her lower lip, eyes wandering around as if she awaited another one of these creatures to jump out on them. And Roka, silently following last, weirdly lightheaded and constantly throwing glances at the Master as if to remind herself that he was alright.

Eventually she felt nudged into her side and looked up to see Amy questioningly glaring at her. The other two were a good bit ahead.

"What is it?" Roka asked perplex.

"Oh, just wondered what happened back there." Amy nodded into the direction they were coming from, then grinned at her. "Seemed like you were taking care of him."

Roka huffed, unwilling to tell about the whole ordeal. "Not really. I just stitched him up, that's all." After a small pause she shrugged and added, "Would have done that for everyone."

Which was true, but in this case it also had been something more personal. Somehow the situation still sat in her bones, making everything around her feel slightly surreal. Why had she reacted like that? Why did she still bother so much after so many years? Or had it only been this huge bunch of painful memories overwhelming her?

Roka had no definite answer to any of those questions, but when she looked ahead, seeing the Master alive, she felt relieve flooding her once again. This emotion at least was real. And everything she had told him before was as well.

Shortly after they reached the camp and Amy poked her torch into the fire. Rory rushed towards them, throwing a mean look at the Master and then taking Amy's hand to guide her to one of the logs in front of the fire, where they sat down. He protectively wrapping an arm around her shoulder.

"We should go to the TARDIS," the Doctor announced. "Can't do much for you out here."

The Master grunted. "Then get that dumb thing over here. Or are your piloting skills still so bad that you can't?"

"Oi! I'm a great pilot!"

"In what universe?" The Master rolled his eyes and tore slightly at his arm to get away. "Leave me be. Any more time in close proximity to that bowtie and I'll never recover."

The Doctor let go of him, tugging at the named attire, while the other one slumped heavily onto another log.

"Bowties are cool," he protested.

"No, they are not," the Master teased. "They look dumb. Especially on you."

"Oi! Don't insult the bowtie!"

"Never came to mind... it's _you_ I enjoy offending." He chucked lightly, folding his hands in his lap and glaring into the flames.

He seemed at least lively enough to be his usual mean self around the other Time Lord.

"Why am I even helping you..." the Doctor grumbled. "You three, stay here. I go and get the TARDIS."

"Wait!" Amy shot up. "You can't leave us here. What if there's more of these things around?"

"Don't worry. They loath fire. Their skin burns like oil." He gestured around and let out a sizzling noise to accentuate his words.

"But what if you lose or drop it? What if it gets you?"

Rory raised too and trod next to Amy. "Let us come along. We can all carry torches."

The Doctor's eyes wandered around between them, one hand sporadically tugging the bowtie. Eventually he sighed and nodded. "Alright. But Amy is still weakened from the poison. Let her stay here."

"What?" Rory exclaimed, throwing a quick glance at the Master. "I'm not going to leave her with..." His eyes nodded to the Time Lord.

"Aaaw, come on, Rory. He saved her life! And Roka's there too. You'll take care of everything, right?" The Doctor beamed at her, winked at Rory and told proudly, "She's superb in keeping things in order. Was my janitor for some years."

Rory stared at her a bit dumbfounded and Roka's cheek took on a slight red hue. "Well... yeah... something like that."

"On then!" The Doctor spun towards a backpack that stood on the ground and got out some more torches. "Didn't know whether or not we'd need that many. But better be prepared, right?" He handed one to Rory and held his own into the flames, swiftly marching into the dark forest and leaving not much time for the other man to follow.

Roka and Amy gave each other a questioning look, both not quite certain what to do with the remaining time. They would need probably two or three hours to return.

"Actually..." Roka cocked her head to one side, eyeing the backpacks. "I'm urgently hungry. Let's have a look what the Doctor took along for us."

"Now, that's a great idea! I totally need something in my stomach. And grumpy face over there probably too." She had ushered the last part with a slight nod.

"I can hear you, matchstick," the Master grumbled and grabbed the backpack that stood close to him. "Marshmallows... great..." He threw the bags out and continued to rummage around.

The girls went to the other one, realizing that it was filled with lots of nonsense. And it was bigger on the inside. Even though not too much.

"Ha!" Amy exclaimed happily, holding a pack of welded sausages in her hands. "He really did good research!"

She got out another few packs and together they, very eagerly, cut them open and proceeded to put them on sticks and placing those around the fire. The Master's eyes were hungrily glued to them the whole time.

Roka also got out a few bottles of water, kept one and slumped down with it in front of the fire, a careful distance away from the Master. By now she was silently cursing herself for having lost her composure like that before. She really didn't want him to think that she actually cared. Well, a little maybe. But not much further than what she had admitted to him. Her life was complicated enough already.

Amy boldly placed herself right next to the Master on the same log, where she slightly hit her hand at his arm.

"Hey, you saved my life there," she said with a smile.

He grumbled, glaring into the flames. "Was a bad idea. All I got for it was people screaming at me and this." At his last words he held up his shirt to present the nasty looking wound, probably hoping it would scare the woman away.

"Oh, don't mind Rory, he'll get over it," Amy reassured in a sassy tone, not even flinching at the sight. "But yeah, I guess it's a bit unfair. So..." Quickly she leaned over and pecked a small kiss on his cheek. "Thank you."

Utterly perplex the Master blinked a few times at Amy, and Roka wasn't quite sure whether or not there was a slight red shade on his face for a moment. It might have been a trick of the light, but nonetheless, he was visibly flustered.

"Maybe doing some good here and there might not be too wrong," he mumbled, turning away and meeting Roka's eyes. Something weird crossed his face, almost bordering on hurt. But then a mischievous grin curved his lips and he glanced back at Amy.

"Don't ruin it, old man!" she let out, waving a warning finger around while she slid away. "That's all you'll ever get from me."

The grin widened, but there was no malevolence in it, only amusement. It seemed, for once, he was content enough with what he had gotten. Instead he started to brag about a few of his most dangerous encounters with alien wildlife, meanwhile devouring most of the sausages. Roka snatched away some for herself, but otherwise tried to stay out of view, wishing to be invisible again. Seeing the Master so familiar with Amy somehow made her feel... weird.

That didn't work for long, because Amy proceeded to probe her for stories of her own.

"You owe me some of those anyway," the Master announced with a happy grin.

Roka sighed, but sat closer to the two, telling of some encounters that had stuck in her mind. From fighting a dragon, to haggle with troll-like creatures, of hiding from giant birds and being chased by a tribe of waist-high, green people. The longer she spoke, the more she grew confident and bolder with embellishing her stories. It was fun to see their reactions, to answer questions and bringing up all those memories.

She didn't even notice how a smile kept creeping to her face, how her heart beat faster by the mere thought of travelling again, how her eyes kept flashing towards the Master and how his reassuring nods made her tell more than she had intended.

When the Doctor eventually came back with the TARDIS it felt as if no time at all had passed. Amy immediately ran into Rory's arms, completely ignoring the Doctor for once. The Master heaved himself off the log, not without struggle, but already on his own feet. When he walked past Roka, he stretched out a hand to ruffle her hair with a smile and vanished wordlessly through the blue doors.

The Doctor waved her inside, an inviting smile on his face.

Not for a second did Roka hesitate to follow, for the first time feeling as if - even though it might only be temporary - she might actually belong somewhere after all.

Amy couldn't, for the life of hers, find rest this night. During her time with the Doctor she had faced death a few times already, but apart from their encounter with the angels this one had felt the most dangerous. Images of the nightmarish abomination haunted her dreams, whenever she managed to slip away for some minutes.

Eventually she flicked on the small light on the nightstand, letting her eyes wander over the now familiar room she was inside. The Doctor had offered her to wander the TARDIS and find herself a suiting one. Or, alternatively, just let the time machine furnish one after her tastes. Amy had chosen the second option and the result was a rather small bedroom with blue tinted walls and a huge fluffy bed inside. There also were some cupboards and a big wardrobe, which was always filled with fresh versions of whatever she hung inside.

Since things were still so uncertain, Rory had gotten his own room. For the most part, Amy hadn't been bothered by it, happy about having some space for herself, while she was busy making up her mind. But after today she yearned for his companionship more than anything else.

After not too much contemplating she shrugged on a fluffy dressing gown, lazily wrapped around her pyjamas, and snuck out her room. Rory's door was right next to hers and she knocked against the hard wood a few times.

There came no answer, confirming her suspicion that he might be asleep already. Amy pushed down the handle, finding the door unlocked, and silently slipped inside the room. She had been inside before and knew it was tidy and probably filled with lots of books about medicine and science, even though she could barely make out anything in the darkness.

Carefully she moved in the direction she remembered the bed to be in, securely guided by a barely audible snoring. When her leg brushed against a wooden frame, she let the gown slip carelessly to the ground and felt for the blankets, while climbing inside the bed. Rory lay with his back to her and she simply snuggled against him, draping the covers over them both.

"What the..." a groggy moan came from Rory and he turned around. "Amy, is that you?"

"Mhmm... Sorry to wake you. Couldn't sleep after today."

He shifted around to face her and draped one arm over her middle. "I don't know if I can bare having you in danger so often," he admitted, still sounding half asleep.

Amy adored how he could act so serious and thoughtful, while being barely awake, and she snuggled closer, entwining her legs with his. A position they had often slept in, and that felt now so unfamiliar and at the same time comforting.

"Then you'll have to never leave my side, so you can be my knight in shining armour," she teased fondly.

Rory huffed and placed a small kiss to her forehead. "For you always. If... you want to continue this, I mean. I won't stop you. And... I will come along. In case you don't mind me."

Amy chuckled. "Oh, my daft boy," she hummed, feeling a lot safer already. "I want no one else protecting me."

There was a long stretched moment of silence, and when Rory spoke up, Amy really wasn't sure whether he was still present or sleep talking, as his voice was laced with sleep and his words were hard to make out. "Does that mean, I can still marry you?"

Amy sighed contently, leaning her head at Rory's chest and savouring how warm and safe he felt, how all tension melted away in his presence, like in no one else's. "Of course you can, silly."

Amy smiled when he hummed happily and sleepy at the same time, finally finding some rest and sleep for remainder of the night.

It seemed as if this was a night of restlessness for all of the TARDIS' inmates. Even the bit of sleep the Doctor deigned himself each day wouldn't come to him this time. Not that it was necessary, but annoying nonetheless.

To occupy his mind with something else, he sauntered to the library, leaving back shoes and jacket, but not the bowtie. There were some new, interesting novels he had gathered from the planet Olmin. He had gotten them a few nights ago, when everyone else had been asleep.

Humming he grabbed one of the books from a shelf and made his way to a set of comfy armchairs in front of an inviting fireplace. It was already lit though and the Doctor found Roka sunken together in one of the fluffy chairs, nursing a cup of tea in her hands, while staring into the flames.

"I always thought, you're more the type for coffee," he made himself noticeable, remembering that he had barely ever seen her without it.

Roka lifted her head and invited him with a nod to join her. "Can't sleep," she explained. "Don't think coffee would help that much."

"And tea does?" The Doctor slumped into the soft chair, folding one leg over the other.

"Mhm... it's just herbs. No caffeine." She took another sip, before lowering the cup and throwing an indefinable look at the Doctor. "Want to be alone? I... can leave, if..."

"Stay," he hastily interrupted her, leaning forward a bit, unfolding his legs, but therefore intertwining his fingers in front of him. "You always try to run away from everyone. Why is that?"

"I don't..." Roka's protest died down the moment she looked into the Doctor's knowing eyes. She knew him a lot better than he knew her, which was a weird thing to him, considering she had spent over two decades inside his TARDIS. Eventually Roka sighed and sunk back. "I'm not used to this."

"To be visible? I was under the impression that should make you quite happy." He stared at his hands and listened to the crackling fire, his thoughts falling into place from somewhere in his messy head. "Instead I have the feeling you want nothing more but run away from all of us."

"And I would, if the Master hadn't stolen my Vortex Manipulator," she grumbled into her cup, while taking another sip.

"It's actually mine." The Doctor smiled to himself. "You stole it from me."

"Only the first one. But it broke some decades ago. Had to make a new one. And that... really wasn't easy. So I can very much daresay it's mine."

"I see, I see. Well... wasn't planning on demanding it back anyway." He chuckled lightly and sent an amused grin towards Roka. "But since we're here and neither of us can't sleep anyway, how about you finally fill me in on what actually happened. The Master was a bit secretive about the whole ordeal."

Roka huffed knowingly, then started to tell him about what had happened, how it came that her glitch was gone all of a sudden, and why the Master was now dragging her around like a stuffed doll.

"No idea what his intentions really are," she ended. "That's just what he said to me." She let out a sigh and slightly shook her head. "I actually don't care what he's planning this time. As soon as I get my hands on another VM I'm gone. Don't worry, I won't bother you forever."

"_Aha!_" the Doctor shot up, startling Roka so much she would have spilled her tea if the mug hadn't been empty. With a grin he pointed a finger at her. "You're doing it again!"

"Doing what?" Perplex she glanced up at him, eyes wide, her hands clutching the mug.

"Trying to run away." He stepped in front of her arm chair, leaned down and placed both hands on the armrests, so he could observe her reactions better. Somewhat intimidated she sunk further back into the chair. "What exactly is it, I'm curious, that you think is so troublesome about you?"

Roka's eyes were wide with confusion. Probably because the previous regeneration of his wouldn't have done something like this. She swallowed visibly. "I... err... am not exactly the type of... person you usually take along."

"No, certainly not." A smile widened on the Doctor's face. "When we first met I would have even refused, had you asked me to come along."

Her mouth dropped slightly open, but the eyes showed that his words didn't surprise her. Quite in opposite they seemed to confirm something, and a deep sense of sadness washed over her face, so the Doctor decided to not hurt her any further.

"But you were there, had no place else to go. Who would I be to just set you out on the street somewhere?" Finally he straightened and saw how Roka took a deep breath. Could he really be that intimidating in this boyish regeneration? "And I wouldn't have. Even had I remembered you all the time."

"But..."

"I might have thought about finding a proper place for you to stay and have a good life though. If you had been an ordinary human." He smiled warmly and shook his head. "It was my TARDIS who froze your time stream. Keeping you here was the only way to compensate you at least somewhat."

"Huh? Compensate?"

Roka looked so perplex at him, that he Doctor felt a painful sting in his chest. He slouched down in his own am chair, hands folded in his lap. "You humans see a long life as a blessing. But it did something horrible to you, didn't it?" With a glance sideway he only saw how she lowered her head. "A human mind is not designed for such a life span. Time runs different for you, perception-wise. I... can't even imagine how painful it must have been to be alone all those years."

"How comes?" she muttered. "You're always lonely."

"Lonely? Naaah!" The Doctor smiled to himself. "Well, yes, sometimes. But I carry all the people with me, I ever had the pleasure to meet and to travel with."

There was a stretch of silence, only disrupted by the crackling fire. Roka seemed to be thinking about his words and the Doctor did his best to avoid exactly that. Letting loneliness catch up with him was never a good idea. Especially now when he was surrounded by so many friends.

"What about Rose?"

His head shot up and towards Roka. "What?"

She sunk back and looked away. "Sorry. Didn't want to stir up old memories. I just thought... if time feels so different for Time Lords... do you still..." She sighed and shook her head. "Forget it. It's none of my business."

"I do still love her," he admitted huskily, surprised about himself. But, in a way, he knew that Roka would understand better than other humans, after having lived for so long. "One day..." He glared up to the ceiling. "...I won't anymore. Even _our_ memories fade. But it takes a lot of time. Centuries maybe."

And then he understood. As he slowly pushed the painful memory of Rose back into place, the Doctor realized that she had actually asked about someone else. The look on Roka's face clearly showed that his answer concerned her. But he had no words to sooth her mind or ease any of the pain in her heart. Instead he raised from the arm chair, his bare feet suddenly very aware of every strand of carped between his toes.

"Roka..." He waited until she looked up. "I meant what I said. You're always welcomed here. My TARDIS is your home for as long as you need or want it." A smile curved his lips and spread to his eyes. "And so far I think we're having a great time together, don't you think?"

The corners of her mouth twitched and at least her eyes wore something that might one day become a smile once again. "Thank you," she muttered. "It means a lot to me."

In the library were three people, even though one of them was hidden behind some shelves, doing his best to stay out of sight.

As the other members of the crew, the Master couldn't find rest this night and had found out that he definitely wasn't the only one with the idea to seek comfort in the pages of old books. He had always had a nick for literature, and now that no drums were bugging his mind anymore, he was finally able to pick up that old passion once again.

The Master had been literally imprisoned in here for some months. Right before that botched resurrection. But that didn't bother him much. What did, though, was to find Roka in here as well. He still had no clue what to make of her behaviour, wasn't even sure she knew that herself. There also were Amy's words from when she had been controlled by that unknown entity, and he wondered if it really was his fault that she had become so broken.

And now he was acting like a dumb human teenager, avoiding Roka at all cost, because he had not the slightest idea how to handle the situation.

Dammit! He was downright evil and smart enough to seize power over whole galaxies! But when it came to that human, he found himself helpless over and over again.

"Why are you hiding there, Master?"

He jumped in surprise, glaring at the Doctor, who had appeared from who knows where. That the Master hadn't sensed him, was proof enough of how distracted his head was. Maybe not being completely physically fit did its part too.

"I'm not hiding," he protested sourly. "Just wasn't in the mood for your dumb faces."

The Doctor sighed and his bare toes played with the carpet. Somehow the Master had the feeling that this new regeneration would even run around butt naked and still wear that ridiculous bowtie.

"Are you better? The nanogenes should have done a good job, but..."

"Yeah, all back to where it belongs." The Master waved the words away with one hand and actually looked a bit displeased.

"Rather wanted to keep those stitches?" the Doctor mocked with a grin.

In some way that wasn't... untrue... albeit stupid. Roka had made such an effort just to safe him. Otherwise he would have lost this body for sure. And for a very short moment... he actually _had_ pondered about whether or not regenerating would be worth it.

And that thought scared him a lot more than his almost certain death had. It was true what he had told Roka. Partially. Without the drums there was nothing to drive him forwards anymore. As if someone had simply ripped out the engine of a spaceship, leaving him floating aimlessly through time and space.

On the other hand... he was still the Master. And he wouldn't just stop anywhere. Especially not after what had happened in that forest. For now there was another thought occupying his mind anyway. Maybe something new to tease the Doctor, and that always was worth pursuing.

"Who is Rose?" he asked, not even trying to hide the mean smirk when the Doctor flinched.

"Noooo one, really," the Doctor obviously tried to evade.

"One of your little pets?" The smile got even wider.

Uncomfortably shifting from one leg to the other, the Doctor eventually spluttered out hastily, "Just another companion. Long time ago. She's gone now."

"So not important to lose your silly old hearts, eh?" the Master chuckled, enjoying the uneasiness of the other one. "And to a human of all people..."

"Why were you even eavesdropping?" the Doctor whined and pointed a finger at his opponent. "And _you_ have to talk!"

The Master winced and cursed under his breath, folding his arms in front of his chest. "Me? No. You're getting something wrong here."

"Do I? So you were protecting Roka from yourself out of boredom? And then searched the whole universe for her for _ten years_ because you had nothing better to do? Not to mention..."

"That's something completely different!" the Master snapped and rolled his eyes. "And yes! I really did have nothing better to do than to secure my time line."

The two glared heated daggers at each other for a good minute, during which the Master mulled over how to turn the situation to his advantage. Eventually he decided to twist the knife a little further, simply for a tiny revenge.

"I bet you got her killed. Either that or she ran off."

The Doctor froze and his eyes turned dark, filled with hurt and the pain of memories that hadn't have the time to fade yet. A mean smile widened on the Master's face, savouring the small victory.

"Not quite..." the Doctor mumbled. "I left her in a parallel universe. Together with... long story. She's save now. And hopefully happy." He looked away and gnawed on his bottom lip. "That's all that matters. I wouldn't have been able to... well, you know it yourself. Our long lives and that of humans aren't... quite compatible."

Slowly the Master let his arms sink, suddenly experiencing something so strangely foreign, that it startled him. Did he really feel sorry for the Doctor? There was a cold flash of empathy cursing through him, tempting the Master to comfort the sad figure in front of him.

An old memory accompanied the weird feeling. Of their time at the academy, when they were still children, always watching each other's backs. How often had he comforted his clumsy friend, when he had managed to get himself into trouble and had come to the Master, tears on his face and a sob-story to tell. How often had he scolded the Doctor, only to instigate him to some trouble just to make him laugh again.

"Well... can't change it anymore," the Doctor muttered. "But... you know... a human that is able to live as long as we do. Even longer, if things go right..." He turned to face the Master and stepped next to him, placing a hand on his shoulder. "If I were you, I'd consider very carefully whether or not to deny things."

With those words he walked away, leaving a perplex Master behind. After a while he quietly chuckled to himself, another memory reminding him of how it also had been the other way around.


	13. I - The wrong place

"How about... Barcelona!" Amy suggested with a grin.

"The planet?"

"No, silly Doctor! The city. It's warm there. We can take a swim. A perfectly ordinary place." Her eyes twinkled mischievously. "I always wanted to visit! Pleeeeease!"

The Doctor sighed, finding himself unable to deny his heated companion her wish. Besides, he still owed them at least one single uneventful trip, after all the previous attempts had failed so miserably.

"Alright... Barcelona it is then!" He hopped to the console, whirled around and pressed buttons, pulled levers and did some other things that were mostly show-off. But a human wouldn't be able to tell anyway.

"That button does absolutely nothing, Doctor," a snarky remark told from behind. "And that lever only works together with the gentolkra engines... which apparently are broken."

The Doctor turned around to face a satisfied smirking Master.

"If you know everything better..." He gestured to the console. "There. Bring us to Barcelona."

The Master quirked a brow, unable to hide the sarcastic smirk playing on his lips. "Sure you can trust me with that? I might land you all inside a lava core. And jump out beforehand." He stuck out his tongue, but eyed the controls.

"Oh, I doubt that." A mean, knowing glint shone in the Doctor's eyes. It got even meaner when he saw Roka sauntering in, accompanied by the usual mug of coffee.

Obviously the Master noticed her too, and his eyes got dark with anger at the Doctor. Wordlessly he stepped to the console and typed in coordinates, before getting the time machine to move. A lot smoother and faster than what the crew was normally used to.

"You should let him fly more often," Roka dryly mumbled towards the Doctor, taking a sip from her mug. "He's really good at it."

"_You_ have to know..." he grumbled back affronted and tugged at his bowtie. "After all you two had a great time in here for some months."

Amy had listen to the whole ordeal and now nudged Roka into the side, her gaze wandering between her and the Doctor. "The Master was here before?"

"Yep!" came his cheery voice as he trod to them and hit his hand down on the Doctor's shoulder. "Stole that old lady from him a while ago. And then we travelled for a bit." He nodded towards Roka.

"Whoa!" Amy exclaimed aghast. "You helped him with that?"

"Certainly not," Roka grumbled and scowled.

With a wide grin the Master poked a finger at her. "Hey! The whole travelling-together thing was _your_ idea."

"But I didn't _steal_ the TARDIS. And the entire situation was messed up anyway... No Amy. Not now." She sighed. "That's a too long story, for which I certainly didn't have enough coffee already."

They got interrupted by the Doctor, who hopped back from the entrance doors, a wide and satisfied smirk on his face, that was clearly directed towards the Master.

"What?" he growled.

"It's the wrong plaaace!" the Doctor sung happily and made sure to stay out of arm's reach from the other one.

"No, it's not! Check the coordinates, you unfashionable insult of a Time Lord."

Amy chuckled at that description and ran to the doors, opening them wide. "Weeeell... it's certainly not Barcelona. Either that, or we are there during an ice age."

Meanwhile the Doctor had checked the console, his brows furrowed so deeply they almost touched. "Okay, okay... you did type the right coordinates."

"Ha!" The Master leaned with folded arms at the banister, a satisfied smile on his lips. "So it's your bloody insubordinate ship that brought us to the wrong place. Not the first time, I might add."

"Could you stop fighting?" Rory moaned, finally joining up with the rest. He walked over to Amy and also took a peek outside. "Snow? Is that still earth?"

Quickly the Doctor approached them and stretched his head outside, sniffing the air. "Yep. I'd guess... Canada, 2010... could be spring. Probably still winter. A bit hard to say here." He turned inside and flashed everyone a grin. "Go on then! Get something warm and let's have a look!"

Before Roka could voice any protest, Amy already dragged her to the wardrobe and picked warm jackets for them. She got herself a bright red one, for Rory it was blue and Roka grabbed a sage-coloured one before Amy was able to pick some garish coloured something for her. They also took some warm toques, gloves and padded boots.

Only the two Time Lords still wore the same things as before. The Doctor in his usual attire, complete with bow tie. The Master clad in his black pants and black dress shirt, having only a blood red tie and his blond head as contrast.

It was freezing cold outside. Fresh and untouched snow covered the ground, it's heaps glittering in the afternoon sun as far as their eyes could reach. Nearby a dense forest stretched out before them, the conifers' green the only taint in the blinding white.

However, as they left the warm interior of the TARDIS, they noticed that they might not have to go far from here.

Behind the blue box stood a big log cabin, build high enough to be still sitting on top of the snow, bleak smoke slowly snaking up from a chimney into the icy air. Wood was stapled at one side, forming large enough piles to bring the inhabitants through the harsh winter.

"Blimey!" an old sounding voice came from nearby, followed by an old man. He was dressed in worn winter clothes, walking slightly hunched over. His face graced by deep wrinkles, but the eyes showing alertness and a clear mind. "You're either aliens or that young generation has invented some crazy stuff while we were hidden here." The old man also wore a crane, which he now hit against the TARDIS. "Or I hallucinated that this thing just appeared out of thin air."

Quickly the Doctor stepped forwards, reaching a hand out. "I'm the Doctor!" he introduced with an inviting smile. "And those are my friends. We only wanted to take a look around here. You know..." He waved a hand around. "Taking in some of this wonderful fresh air and enjoying the nice weather."

The old man snorted and glinted amused at the strange group. "Ah, why not. We used this place to welcome guests anyway. Back when my bones weren't aching that much. I'm only afraid there isn't much I can offer right now. You do eat human food though?"

"Yup!" the Doctor agreed, popping the 'p'. "I absolutely love it!"

Amy stepped next to him, effortlessly keeping pace as they followed towards the stairs. "So, people came here for vacation?"

"Yes, yes. They did." The old man smiled at the nostalgic memory. "Well, they usually arrived in a less fancy way though. But whoever you are, there is nothing worth stealing here anyway. And I guess I'm too old to be bothered."

"Oh, we weren't planning to," Amy reassured hastily. "We're just... err... travellers."

They had reached the door and the old man fumbled with some keys, before finally opening them. The inside was spacious and completely wooden, except for a big, lit fireplace, that filled the whole interior with a pleasant warmth. Sofas stood around wooden tables and the walls were decorated with some antlers and pictures of the landscape.

"Oh..." the old man made. "Mhm... that could be a problem. We only have three empty rooms since my grandson is staying with me for the holidays."

"We'll just share a room." Amy grabbed Rory's arm and smiled at him.

"Then I'll take one for myself," Roka decided.

The two Time Lords threw a glance at each other, both folding their arms in front of their chest.

"I'm not even sure yet, we'll stay that long anyway," the Doctor muttered.

"Och, pleeeease!" Amy begged. "This place is so cool!"

Rory nodded and seconded, "Yeah, I actually really like it here. It's so cosy and calm."

"You mean, horribly boring," the Master grumbled. "It's not as if we could pay for the stay anyway. And knowing our sickeningly goodhearted Doctor here, he won't let me hypnotize that old geezer."

Said old man let his gaze wander between his guests, obviously amused and also unfazed by their behaviour. He then knocked his cane at the Doctor's leg. "Lend me a hand with a few things, you lot. That should be enough. I'm too old to repair everything and my little one is too young."

Right as he said that, a boy peeked around a corner, hands clung to the wall. His head disappeared immediately when he realized, he had been spotted.

"Oi, Mike, come and greet our guests. They'll stay for the night. Like in old times. You know, aunt Katie told about it."

The kid hesitantly returned and shuffled towards his grandfather. He must have been seven or eight years old, had brown hair and eyes, that were darting back and forth between everyone. Mike took all of his courage and stretched a hand out to the Doctor, squeaking a quick, "Hello." before hiding behind the old man.

"My name's Jeremiah by the way," he introduced himself. "I'd suggest you go and have some fun for now. We can do the work tomorrow. Have to prepare the rooms anyway. And... There's not much fancy food around here, I'm afraid. Dinner'll be a bit boring."

At that the Master's face lit up and he grabbed Rory's arm. "You!" he demanded with a wide grin. "We'll go hunting."

"Wh... what?" Rory asked perplex, but got dragged away, his protests falling on deaf ears.

"Uh-oh... That could go wrong." Amy chuckled, but wasn't much concerned. Since the Master had saved her, she somewhat trusted him. Not much, but her instinct told her, he wasn't going to harm any of them as long as the Doctor was around. Or maybe it had more to do with Roka. She wasn't quite sure about the details.

Speaking of whom, as Amy glanced around, she found Roka trying to sneak out on her own.

"Hey, wait!" she called out and ran after her.

Rory got dragged along and was the perfect opposite of happy about his company. The Master pried around the house, peeking inside every room and every corner.

"We don't have anything to steal," a childish voice came from behind them. The boy stood there, contrasting his size with folded arms and a stern look.

"We don't want to steal..." Rory began, but got cut off.

The Master rushed past him, grabbed the boy by his collar and lifted him up from the ground, so he was now dangling wide-eyed in the air, facing a menacing grin.

"Do you guys have any guns in here? I want to go hunting."

Mike croaked out something, clearly unable to properly speak in that position.

"What? I can't hear you, brat."

Rory coughed and shifted around to find a position in which he could free the kid. "Maybe, if you let him down..."

The Master snapped his head towards him, a hateful glint in his eyes. But he released the boy at least.

"Grandpa has one in his room," Mike told, surprisingly brave and obviously not willing to let himself be intimidated by the man before him. Instead his eyes got curious. "Can I come with you? I always wanted to hunt. But Gramps is too old to take me."

"I... don't think that's a good idea," Rory objected carefully. "And I'm rather certain it's also a bad idea to have me..."

"You're not running away, human." The Master squinted at him. "I'm bored and need some stupidity to keep me entertained."

"Wha... hey!"

"And you!" The Master pointed at the child, a sickeningly evil grin on his face. "Don't you dare following me, or I'll have to change the menu for this evening."

Mike became silent and only nodded to one of the rooms, before hastily running away. Rory, however, had to follow the other man and witness how he grabbed a hunting rifle and pocketed some ammunition.

"That should do," he announced happily, the muzzle pointing belligerently at Rory's chest.

The Doctor had actually wanted to follow Rory and the Master to make sure no one would get harmed. But he found them to be gone too quickly and decided to go outside instead. There was snow after all, and snow generally meant fun.

He found Amy there, actively about to build a snowman, and Roka nearby, looking as if she wanted nothing more than to run away once again.

"Doctor!" Amy called out and waved wildly.

"Ah, I see!" He grinned from ear to ear and strode over. "A typical human past-time in winters. Forming snow to big balls and sticking stuff in it."

"Och, come on," Amy mocked. "You can be all smug and important another day. Let's have some random fun together!"

"Oi! I'm not smug!" the Doctor protested. "Smug was the high priest of the congregation of Paralkarteroin when he tried to order his entire..."

"Doctor!" Amy warned and waved a finger at him. "Snowman. Now!"

He chuckled and let his glinting green eyes wander over the snow around, then over Roka.

"What?" she grumbled and kicked away some white powder. "This is childish."

"Oh, but childish is good! It's absolutely fantastic, I might say. You should really try it. Bet you didn't have that much of a chance to be all childish as a childy child, have you?"

"Err..." Roka blinked at him puzzled, before her mind caught up with his weir phrasings. "Mhm... guess not. Not like this at least."

Satisfied the Doctor watched as she picked up some snow and glared at it for a while, until she seemed to make up her mind and started to build a small snowman of her own. The Doctor meanwhile helped Amy, and somehow managed to decorate her creation in a way that made the result look more like a Dalek. But that reminded him of how she didn't remember them, although she should. And also of his failure to erase the last of them from existence.

How long would it take them to build more Daleks? How long until they gathered enough strength to threaten the universe once again, while the only Time Lord to stand against them was he himself? And that only because he had refused to sacrifice his favourite planet.

"Doctor?"

Roka's voice tore him out of the thoughts and he realized that he had been staring at a snowball in his hands, while Amy was busy building the next creature on her own. Hastily he dropped the snow and flashed the woman in front of him a grin that hopefully hid his concern.

"Go on," he waved her towards Amy. "Or, if you prefer something else... I'm rather sure I've seen a bunch of skis lying around somewhere."

At that Roka's eyes widened in anticipation, making the Doctor smile grow even wider. Together with Amy they rushed back to the cabin to search for that gear.

Rory had never in his life awaited to spend an afternoon hunting in a snowy forest, together with an evil alien. At first he had thought the Master was joking about that, but it soon got clear that he, indeed, had brought that rifle to cull some wildlife. And he was astonishingly skilled at moving through the woods without making much noise. Much in opposite to Rory himself, who often had trouble not stumbling.

Some time later the Master gestured him to halt and froze in place, a perfectly composed statue, head slightly inclined and eyes almost closed.

"Nothing," he grumbled eventually and eyed a nearby tree stand. "Let's get up there."

Rory had no actual choice but to obey. There was no way he would find the cabin again on his own. So all he could do was climbing up the tree to the small wooden stand and sit down, hoping to at least not freeze up here.

The Master got down the rifle from his shoulder and casually placed it over his legs, before he spent the next fifteen minutes or so just sitting there with closed eyes, listening to their surroundings. It somehow seemed as if he was enjoying the silence around, and it was a strange sight to behold, considering his usual demeanour.

But eventually Rory had enough. He was cold and he hated being here with the Master of all people. He even found some unknown courage in himself and coughed slightly.

"If you die, I'll just leave you out here," the Master announced dryly, without moving.

"That... won't happen," Rory stammered and took a deep breath. "L... leave Amy alone from now on," he brought out.

A few seconds passed before a smile gradually formed on the Master's face. He opened his eyes and flashed Rory a grin. "What if I don't?"

"Th... then... I... well..." Dammit! He hadn't really thought this through enough. Instead he decided to get offensive. "I know that you hypnotized her once. B... but she is mine! Just so you know."

His heart was banging violently against his ribcage, trying to burst out of it from the fear that started to settle in him. This had been a bad idea... the worst! But he didn't want Amy to fall prey to that guy.

To his surprise the Master didn't appear angry. There only was lots of amusement glinting in his eyes all of a sudden.

"If you know about my psychic skills, boy... then you should also know that if I really wanted to, I'd already gotten her." He chuckled darkly. "And there would be nothing you could do against it."

Then stop playing with her!" Rory burst out. "People aren't toys."

"Oh?" the Master shrugged, but something else seemed to occupy his mind. Another few minutes passed in silence, before he calmly asked, "How do you two do that?"

"What... do you mean?"

The Master cocked his head to one side as if to ponder about his next words. "It's like you two are some kind of... two pieces cut in half or so... mhm... I don't get it."

"Eh..." That statement startled Rory. He had awaited a lot, but not this. "Well... ah... ahem... We simply love each other. That's all Or.. no, not all. That's a lot, if you ask me. It's a privilege. But.. I'm not sure that's an answer."

He peeked at the Master and wondered, not for the first time, who he actually was. A frightening and dangerous man for sure, but there ought to be more to a person than that. Everyone had a past, especially when they were a species with such a long life span. And the fact that the Doctor took him along meant that the Master couldn't be all bad, even though it was hard for Rory to imagine.

"Love... pah! That's why she wanted to run away with the Doctor?" the Master commented in a sarcastic tone and chuckled. "Ah, don't worry. He has that effect on people. But he's too repressed to actually act on anything."

Rory scowled and crossed his arms, not wanting to be remembered of this. And also how the Master had promptly hypnotized her.

"Well... whatever it is, I won't let any harm come to Amy. A.. and that includes you," he decided, feeling a lot less courageous than he hopefully sounded.

A long look wandered over Rory, and to his surprise, instead of murdering him or anything the like, the Master simply shrugged unimpressed and turned his attention back to some animals that had appeared nearby.

Skiing had sounded like a lot more fun than it actually was.

Even though Roka surely hadn't been lazy on trying out as much as possible during her travels, skiing actually hadn't been among it. And now she found herself, suddenly faced with a much younger version of herself. One that used to be a bit clumsy and not very skilled in anything even remotely sporty.

"It's not that hard, really," Amy teased friendly and looked as if she had been born into her skis.

Roka gulped and looked down the steep slope in front of which she stood, hesitating to glide it down. Somehow she always had had a disliking for fast methods of movement. Cars, planes, motor bikes and even skateboards... those things just weren't for her.

Meanwhile the Doctor came running back to them, bordering on being breathless from running up the hill over and over again, no matter how often he landed head first in heaps of snow.

"Now, now," he cheered, wiping some snow from his hair, and nudged Roka. "You'll be fine."

In the end it was a mixture of stubbornness and the unwillingness to show too much fear in front of the others that lead Roka to ram the ski-sticks into the snow and push herself down the slope.

The ride was short and unsurprisingly ended on her bum, both skis landing somewhere nearby. But instead of frustration she felt amusement at the situation and heaved herself up. At least she had tried. That was worth a lot in her eyes. But on the other hand she wasn't that adamant on trying it again either.

Shortly after they wandered back to the cabin, getting greeted by their crooked snow creations from before. There also were two figures slowly walking towards them, coming from the nearby forest. One of them was Rory, carrying a bunch of dead rabbits and a look that made clear that he felt sorry for the animals. The other one was...

It took Roka quite the moment to comprehend the sight. She was used to the Master enjoying to be dressed rather fashionable, and mostly in black and red. Now though he wore some worn out blue jeans and a red, padded plaid shirt that was tugged into the pants, giving him the appearance of a woodcutter. The sight was just too much for Roka and she couldn't hold back a mean chuckle.

"What's there to laugh about?" The Master squinted at her, the rifle draped over one shoulder.

"You look funny, that's all." She poked out her tongue.

"Tch, just adapting to the local style. They'd all drop dead if they'd have to face someone more handsome than them."

"Uh-huh." Roka mocked on, but an annoying little thought in her head commented that he actually didn't look that bad in this attire.

The Master ignored her and together with the abashed Rory he went to get inside the house. That moment Roka decided the day had been fun so far, and that there was one thing she really had never had the chance to do while being a glitch.

Swiftly she bent down to pick up a handful of snow, forming it into a ball between her gloves. She then took a stance and aimed, before throwing the snowball right at the Master's back, where it exploded into fine dust.

"Oi! Who was that?!" he demanded sourly and hurled around.

Both, Amy and the Doctor, had also started to form snowballs, as if Roka's act had been a command. The Doctor threw his in the Master's direction, while Amy's hit Roka into the knee.

Like a sudden storm a snowball fight of epic scale broke loose. The rabbits landed on the porch, conserved by the cold, and everyone else was suddenly very busy hiding behind everything, while trying to keep a constant stash of fresh snowballs in their arms to throw around.

The two Time Lords seemed to have the upper hand, due to their superior speed, but faced against three very determined humans, they also got hit enough times to be soon covered in white powder. However, since, everyone fought against everyone else, no one got spared in the end. And it was a peculiar and raw kind of fun. Childish and simple, but simultaneously one of the best things Roka had ever done in her life.

She took one opportunity, when she saw the Master to be distracted, and threw a particularly big ball right into his neck. He had stood nearby, so the impact made him stumble. With determined glinting eyes he spun around evaded almost every other snowball Roka threw at him, while he closed the remaining distance between them with ease.

"Just you wait!" he exclaimed and grabbed her collar, determined to squish some snow into her jacket.

She squirmed out of his grip and danced around him, throwing another snowball right at his chest, even though it had been aimed at the head. That brought her slightly off balance, however, and the Master took the opportunity to slightly push her with a mean grin. Roka lost her balance and landed on her back on the ground, followed by the Master, who again tried to rub snow into her clothes and face.

Roka tore her arms up, crossing them above her head in a protective manner, a giggle escaping her, when the Master tried to push them away with one hand, the other already holding a big snowball.

"I give up!" she squeaked panting, a grin still plastered to her face.

"Do I care?" the Master mocked and continued to try to push her arms down. After another useless attempt he actually stopped. "Good to see you laugh a bit at least."

Only then did she realize it too. Right now she really had fun, there was no denying it. They all had gotten carried away by this silly game, and she was no exception.

Nothing happened for another few seconds, so she carefully peeked up between her arms and eventually lowered them a bit.

The Master still held her collar and a snowball in his other hand, and was leaned down close to her, a playfully mean smirk on his lips, promising to show no mercy on her. But there also wasn't that much distance at all between them actually, making Roka stare right into his amused hazel eyes. The smile left her slowly, got replaced by a sudden and surprising warmth in her cheeks, that would have been deceptively visible, hadn't she been flushed from tolling around anyway.

The moment stretched into a small eternity, while Roka couldn't look away from his eyes that were only inches away and so familiar, yet different. Almost on its own, and definitely without the consent of her conscious mind, her hand slowly reached up to carefully grab his shirt and tug him a little closer.

"Hey! Have you killed the poor girl?" Amy's voice tore apart the silence.

Hastily the Master snapped away and remembered the snow in his hands, suddenly letting it drop onto Roka's head with a wide, mean grin, before he rose to his feet and plainly walked away, leaving her wonder - and hope - he hadn't noticed the shift in her behaviour.

Roka sat up and wiped the snow off of her, puzzled and dumbfounded at the weird situation. The playful mood had carried her away, sure, but... Roka shook her head and picked herself off the ground, brushing off the snow from her clothes as good as possible.

While glancing around it got clear that the battle had come to a halt, everyone now covered in white, and dripping here and there, where the snow had melted already. Rory sneezed loudly and shivered a bit, leading the Doctor to push him towards the cabin.

"In with all of you! No colds here, I forbid it! We're here to have fun after all, and being sick isn't fun. So don't you dare!"

"Yeah... it's no fun," Rory confirmed. "I hope we can have a nice hot bath in there."

"Oh, that would be great now," Amy seconded and grinned at Roka when she passed her. "That was a good fun, wasn't it?"

She nodded, but stayed silent otherwise, following the group inside.


	14. I - An ordinary vacation

It seemed as if the Doctor had finally succeeded in granting his friends an ordinary vacation. After the fun they had in the snow, they were now enjoying the cosy warmth of the cabin's wooden interior.

To everyone's surprise the Master had grabbed the dead rabbits and had vanished with them inside the kitchen, only dragging a protesting Rory along with him.

"I get the feeling he found a liking to Rory." The Doctor rubbed his neck and glared after them.

"Do I have to get jealous?" Amy wondered, though sounding sarcastic. "Well... _you_ should," she added towards Roka.

"Huh? Why would I?" She got off her jacket and boots and placed both in the hallway, before putting on a pair of fluffy slippers Jeremiah had provided for them all.

"Come on. You're totally into him." Amy snickered and winked suggestively.

"What?!" Roka spun around. "Wh... what in the universe makes you think _that_?!"

"How about the fact that you're blushing right now?" Amy chuckled some more and took a precautionary step back.

"That's just from the cold outside!" Roka protested and folded her arms over her chest.

"Now, now, you two." The Doctor stepped between them with raised hands. "No fighting here. Although Amy might have a..." He looked thoughtful for a second, a finger tapping against his lips.

Roka glared daggers at him, barely able to contain the anger that was welling up inside her. After all that had happened, how could they think something like that?

In that moment the Master came out to them, marched towards another door, but stopped to curiously observe the scene. He didn't get spared when it came to murderous looks, making him mockingly raise his hands and grin widely.

"My, what imp spat into your soup, little crow?"

"Don't call me that!" Roka demanded and spun around to him. "Never again!"

His grin dropped when he noted her anger. "Hey, I've done nothing to you!" he whined and pouted. "Not my fault that you're bad at snowball fights."

A very thin and fragile thread finally snapped. Roka stabbed a finger in his direction. "What you did? You really ask that? _You_?! It's more a question of what you _didn't_!"

A scowl deepened on the Master's face at being treated like that. And had it been another time there would have been no doubt that Roka wouldn't leave this situation unharmed. Now though he only glared back with barely contained ire.

"Right... I _didn't_ harm you, ungrateful brat," the Master spat back, now towering above her with a menacing glare, suddenly very much the man he used to be. Anger and something more dark and dangerous seeping from him as he darkly continued, his voice threateningly low, "I _didn't_ let you become a literal ghost. I _didn't_ left you with that glitch. I _didn't_ left you alone and as the miserable thing you were when I found you."

The Doctor coughed slightly. "Please. There really is no reason for..."

"Shut up!" Roka growled without taking her eyes off the Master. Right now she wasn't bothered if she hurt anyone. All this anger that had accumulated for more than a century was now let loose, and she had not the slightest intention to put it back again already. Instead she took a step closer to the Master and glared up at him.

"As if you had done anything of this for anyone else than yourself," she snarled. "It's a coincidence that I'm still alive, and nothing more! You would have killed me, regardless of the outcome!" The only thing she was holding back was her desire to punch him, but only because she knew he would evade it with ease.

Had he been his old self this would have been a dangerous move. She saw it in his eyes. Not much was there that held him back. And she knew all too well how good he was at hurting people. But instead of attacking her, there was only a malevolent smirk curving his lips.

"True," he confirmed nonchalantly. "Because this is who I am after all, right?" He shifted slightly to one side, leaning closer down to her. "I told you a long time ago... I'll enjoy destroying you. That's still true, my _little crow_."

Roka took a step back, her frown deep. "And then you wonder why everyone hates you. Why you have to hypnotize people so they don't run away." A sickeningly mean grin was on her face all of a sudden. "It's because you're such a disgusting person. No one should ever be forced to be around you!"

No one but her saw the slight change in the Master's eyes. She had finally hit the right spot, one that hurt. One that would make him suffer for quite a while.

And Roka hated herself for being the cause of it.

In an instant all her anger subsided as if someone had suffocated a fire, and all she wanted to do was to apologize. She hated how there suddenly were tears in her eyes, how she couldn't stop staring at him, almost begging him to forget her stupid words.

But the damage had already been done. And no words would be able to take it back. Roka hurled around, lowered her head and rushed to her room, slamming the door shut behind her.

Only silence stayed back with the others as they all glared at their shoes. Eventually though a slight chuckle came from the Master. No one, not even the Doctor, saw how much Roka's words had hurt him. He was just too good at hiding these things.

"My, what a temper," he remarked snarky.

"I can't help it," the Doctor mumbled, blinking at the Master. "But she somehow reminded me of someone."

"Yeah." Amy also found her voice again. "It's rather creepy."

"Mhm, that's what I thought too," the Master snickered amused.

But deep down he was concerned. Because he knew too well how a behaviour like that came to pass. How long someone had to be lonely and miserable to push everyone around them so far away that they stopped trying.

Somehow she had acted quite like him.

Amy played cards with Mike and the Doctor for some hours, while Jeremiah sat nearby, watching and sometimes throwing in a funny comment when someone tried to cheat again. Here and there he vanished into the kitchen to see if it was still intact, but every time he exited there was a satisfied smirk on his face.

"I really can't imagine those two not to burn down the whole building," Amy remarked while trying to inconspicuously pick up a card less than she had to. "Rory is horrible in the kitchen."

The Doctor only hummed in thoughts, glaring intensely at his hand.

"Oh," Jeremiah chuckled. "Seems like your friends have some hidden talents then."

Finally the doors opened and out stepped Rory, wearing an apron that suited him astonishingly well. Amy's head already spun a few more uses for that thing together, before she noticed a somewhat proud look on his face.

"Dinner's ready!" he announced in an unfamiliarly confident voice.

"I'm not sure I'm hungry..." Amy drawled mockingly.

"Oh, just you wait, Amy!" Rory grinned from ear to ear, rushing back into the kitchen.

They all looked at each other and Jeremiah gestured them towards a large and heavy wooden table where they all found more than enough space to sit down. Only then did Amy remember Roka and went to drag her out of that room. With force if necessary.

She knocked a few times, and when there came no answer, Amy blatantly opened the door and stepped inside.

To her surprise it was dark, making her ponder for a moment if there even was anyone inside. But then she found Roka, sitting upright on a pillow on the floor, legs crossed and hands folded in her lap. Her eyes were closed, the breath slow and controlled.

"Errr... We'll have dinner in a moment," Amy told, a bit puzzled. "What the heck are you doing there?"

Slowly Roka's eyes opened, her movements showing no haste, and it made quite the impression as if she had just returned from somewhere far away.

"Meditating," she answered quietly.

"You mean like those yogis? Or monks?" Amy chuckled. "Sounds horribly boring."

With a weird graze that almost didn't fit her, Roka got up from the ground in a single fluid move. Again Amy remembered that feeling she had had the first time. That this little woman was more dangerous than looks made believe. Even though she did good at hiding it from everyone.

"Keeps your mind calm and... tidy. In a way." Roka shrugged and put on her shoes. "And I can strengthen my psychic barriers."

"Still sounds boring," Amy decided and lead them both to the dining table. "By the way, it seems like Rory and the Master were brewing something together in the past hours. So we'll probably die."

"Oh? Mhm... wouldn't be so sure about that," Roka mumbled from behind.

They sat down and Roka and the Doctor shared a knowing look that spiked Amy's anticipation even more. Luckily she didn't have to wait long before the doors opened once more and both men stepped outside, loaded with dishes and plates.

They placed everything onto the table and filled it out completely.

"You're freakin' kidding me!" Amy's mouth hung open at the sight.

There were several dishes, all apparently made from rabbit meat and decorated with various garnishes like vegetables, rice, bread and other things. Her eyes caught a few of them nearby. In front of her boasted a juicy roast with its mouth watering scent, next to it sat a plate with small pieces of meat on toothpicks that were wrapped in bacon and somewhere else stood something that probably was stew.

"Could be a lot better," the Master complained when he came back once more, carrying some bottles of wine. "But that old geezers here had almost nothing in stock."

Jeremiah laughed at the insult, showing clearly that he was too old to allow himself to be offended by anything anymore. "Oh, I think you did quite wonderful with what was at hand, my boy."

"Only _boy_ here is he!" the Master pointed at Rory. "Although you were a lot more useful than anticipated."

"Eh... thanks... I guess." Rory brought out, but still smiled proudly.

"Might keep you even," the Master continued, chin in hand.

"Hey! I'm not to _keep_!"

"At least not by anyone but me," Amy claimed.

Meanwhile the Doctor was hungrily glaring at the foot, folding a tissue to stuff it into his collar, before he turned to the others. "I'm definitely more eager to try those delicious looking treasures than to continue all that bickering. Come, come, you two. Sit down. You did all the work."

Only Roka stayed silent, urgently trying to avoid looking in the Master's direction. She was the first to grab some of the food, giving the others a signal to also help themselves.

For quite a while the room was only filled with the sounds of clinking cutlery, cutting and here and there a satisfied noise. Amy still couldn't believe it, but everything tasted extraordinarily amazing.

"I know Rory is rubbish in the kitchen," she eventually stated between bites. "Sorry dear, but it's true."

Rory grumbled and hid his pouting by stuffing a piece of meat in his mouth.

"So... that must mean you made all of that, Master," she continued. "Villain and cook. That's a combination to behold."

He only snickered and glinted at her over the rim of his wine glass.

"Hey, Roka! Did you know that?" Amy nudged her.

Roka grumbled agreeing, but obviously determined not to share her attention with anything but her filled plate.

"I didn't know," the Doctor remarked, dreamily looking at a piece of meat on his fork. "Well, not until those two had this date."

"It wasn't a date," Roka mumbled sourly.

"It sure was," the Master chuckled, earning himself an intensive eye-roll.

For once Amy decided not to dig deeper. Right now didn't seem a good moment, since she was way too occupied by eating, and Roka's mood indicated that she probably wouldn't tell anything anyway. And hearing it from the Master... who knew how much of it would be true.

Later that evening they all sat sprawled over the sofas in front of the fireplace, sated and content, listening to one of the Doctor's stories about a wild chase after the crimson dice of an alien called a frigorox that had an obsession with dice games. Jeremiah had brought Mike to bed and was now listening with glinting eyes, not showing any hint of whether or not he was believing these stories, or if he simply didn't care anymore.

At some point they started to play cards again, and the Doctor vanished into the TARDIS for a few minutes to get out a bigger deck. They were too many now to play with a normal one. Not that they exactly followed the rules anyway, but like that they could all participate.

Roka admitted to herself that, once more this day, she actually had fun playing with them. It was hard for her to grasp where the anger from before had stemmed from. Suddenly it had just been there. And now she felt guilty and bad about having been so mean. The entire time the Master hadn't spoken much to her, what was unusual considering how he always tried to stay close and annoy her. But there also was her pride, preventing her from actually apologizing.

The game ended eventually and they went back to telling stories.

"You know, boys," Jeremiah yawned after an hour or so. "You're either the biggest liars in the world, or some fancy fantasy authors... or real aliens. And the later wouldn't even surprise me."

"Good!" the Master cheered. "Then don't be surprised, human."

"We're really just on a vacation," the Doctor assured, folding his thin legs one over the other. "No need to worry. We won't harm you lot."

"Stop speaking for everyone," the Master pouted.

"Aha!" Amy threw in. "So you only cooked to make us fat and slow, and then slice us all up!"

"Amyyyy!" Rory whined. "Don't give him ideas."

But the Master only smirked from ear to ear, clearly satisfied with having strewn some fear around. Even when it was only a little.

Lulled into the contentment of the good meal, the crackling fire, being exhausted from being around people so much and also the time itself, Roka noted how she slowly started to drift away more and more often. She slid one seat away from Amy to have more space and drew her legs close to wrap her arms around them. Like that she stayed and allowed herself to nod away, while still enjoying to watch the others.

Sometime later she vaguely felt someone sitting next to her, expecting it to be Amy, but she was too tired to actually look and once more gave in to sleep.

"Why don't you go to bed?" someone asked in a mixture of curiosity and amusement.

Roka shifted slightly and somehow lost her orientation. She had been leaning with her back on the sofa, but now she leaned with her side and head against it. Or... no... that wasn't...

Groggily her eyes opened a bit and when she glanced up she met the Master's amused eyes, looking down at her. Somehow she had ended up leaning at his side without noticing. It was warm and comfy, and a part of her couldn't be bothered, while another, stronger one, made her shoot away and blink perplex.

"I don't mind," the Master just said, not taking his eyes off of her. "But still... isn't a bed more comfortable?"

Roka sunk together, clutching her knees once more.

"I don't want to be alone right now," she admitted and carefully glanced back at the Master, too tired to read his face.

"I could keep you company," he offered and poked out his tongue.

"You wish," Roka grumbled.

Faintly she could make out how Jeremiah told the others of how things had been, back when this cabin had still served as a place for families to have a nice vacation. She wasn't really interested in it and instead tried to nod away once more, but found herself unable to. Somehow this position suddenly wasn't comfortable anymore and she glanced back at the Master.

He stretched out a hand and grabbed her collar in the neck, tugging at it enough to make her practically fall back into the position she had woken up moments ago. Surprised she looked up and met a smug smirk.

"Aren't... you mad at me?" she asked quietly.

Both of his eyebrows raised. "What for? For complimenting me?" A grin widened on his face.

Oh, he was always so proud of being all evil and mean, but Roka had seen the hurt in his eyes and knew better.

"I'm sorry I said that," she mumbled and snuggled a little closer. He was warm and his ridiculous woodcutter shirt was soft and inviting. Enough to chase away her inner protests.

"Oi! Wanna play another round?" Amy's voice resounded from ahead. "Oh... Eh, don't mind me. Keep sleeping." She giggled and watched for a few seconds. "You know... considering that you despise each other so much... you're quite cute together." With that she hasted away, tugging at Rory to tell him who knows what.

Roka shot straight and slid away, hiding the light blush that crept up her neck. Being tired really was no reason for letting the Master so close to her. Definitely not, she decided, even though now it was a bit colder and lonelier.

It was the silence that woke Roka hours later. The only remaining light in the enormous living room area stemmed from the fainting flames of the fireplace. Calm crackles resounded through the night, sparsely accompanied by the soft moaning of old wood in the freezing cold of winter.

Roka yawned and rolled to the other side on the sofa, drawing the covers over her.

Covers?

Her hands felt soft and padded cloth around her shoulders and she realized it was the woodcutter shirt the Master had worn before. He must have left it when they had all headed to bed.

For a brief second Roka was about to throw it to the ground, but then decided otherwise and instead wrapped it closer around herself. Why was everything suddenly so confusing? She had decided such a long time ago to never let anyone near her again. Especially not the Master after what he had done.

But there she was, trying so hard to deny that she enjoyed having this stupid shirt that smelled like him.

It was idiotic. She had been on her own for over a century and hadn't been bothered by it. So why did she now feel so isolated all of a sudden? The perfect opposite was the case after all. But the feeling got so overwhelming that she had to curl up for a while.

Eventually she sat up, unable to fall asleep again anyway. Quietly she donned her shoes and wrapped herself into the woodcutter shirt. It was snugly warm and perfect for those temperatures. Well... and she always had had a soft spot for plaid anyway.

The cabin had a somewhat eerie feeling to it, covered in this looming darkness. Roka could barely imagine it to be brimming with smiling guests, life and happily playing children. Those days were long gone and would never return.

Since the door didn't need to be locked out here, Roka simply slid outside, carefully manoeuvring down the snow covered stairs. The sky was dark, free of any clouds and dotted with countless glimmering stars, all watching upon the sleeping folks.

Roka took slow breaths, relishing the sensation of the freezing air almost hurting in her lungs. For some minutes she only stood there, trying to ignore the cold that crept through her clothes and into her bones. A flock of thick feather light snow flakes sailed down from the blackened veil above her head, the sight calming her racing thoughts and clearing her mind.

Snow... it always had been fascinating to her. Even when she had still been a child and she and her father had set out with a sleigh to conquer the nearby hills. Back then the effect of the glitch had only been subtle, although already painfully obvious to her. There were moments when Roka found her father staring at the sleigh, wondering what he might be doing with this thing out here and already about to head home, before she had tugged at his sleeve until an expression of sudden recognition had crossed his eyes.

The only time she hadn't been forgotten at all, was when she had been sleeping wrapped in his arms, the smell of hot chocolate and the sound of fantastic stories still lingering in her little mind.

But the moment her father had laid her to rest, it had been over, and there would be no one to wake her for the morning, and progressively also no one noticing her presence when she entered the kitchen for breakfast.

What else could she have believed back then, but to be a ghost?

The word rang in her mind, making her remember what the Master had said before.

_I didn't let you become a literal ghost._

What had he meant by that? Those words hinted at the possibility of him having met a future version of her during his search. But her mind refused to puzzle together on its own what he had encountered there. She had a hunch... taking off the gloves to stare at her hands... How far would this have gone without his interference?

Roka shook her head and sauntered to the back of the cabin to get her mind in another direction. Jeremiah had told something about there having been a hot spring at some point. It wasn't hard to miss. An almost perfect circle of snow was melted away, leaving nothing but the bare ground to stand on. Water wasn't there anymore, although no one had an explanation where it could have vanished to.

Curiosity sparked, she stepped into the circle, feeling the temperature raise immediately. It was so warm, she even had to drop the shirt for a while. The ground was almost too hot to touch at some spots. In others it was cold.

There also was something that looked like it could be or have been a hole. Earth now filled the small circle and there was no heat emanating from it. Roka lay next to it, hands folded behind her head and watched the stars above, wishing she could travel on her own again.

Not long though and her musings got interrupted by a weird, bleak smoke that slightly covered the ground. When she glanced around, she noted surprised that it stemmed from the previous hole in the ground. And as she stared at it, dumbfounded, the soil started to move slightly.

Roka shot up and onto her knees, for a second undecided whether to get the Doctor or to take a look on her own. But her stubbornness commanded her to stay. She was old and experienced enough to deal with those things on her own.

Once again she took off one glove and touched the shifting ground, her hand gliding through the warm, white smoke. There was barely any resistance and she could reach right down into the earth. It actually felt as if the ground was only a thin layer, and there was nothing beneath it. Her hand reached into literal nothingness and fumbled around in vain.

Roka let out a surprised shriek, then a louder one, when something grabbed her arm and pulled at it, the grip too strong for her to get free, no matter how much she struggled.


	15. I - Below

As promised the Doctor and Rory helped with some repairs in and around the cabin the next day. It weren't difficult tasks, but ones that simply were too much for an old man like Jeremiah.

Meanwhile Amy kept Mike busy, played with him in the snow and showed him some ski tricks. The boy was really good at this and seeing him having so much fun let Amy's heart jump in joy. She absolutely adored children.

The Master had vanished from sight, obviously trying his best not to get involved in having to help with anything. He returned in the afternoon, empty handed and nagging about why they were still not leaving. When no one listened to his complaints he thrust his hands in his pockets, put on a frown and went who knows where.

Evening threw closer once more, the sky darkening fast in these winter times. There even was a bleak aurora decorating the firmament above their heads, and everyone gaped at it in awe. It was then when the Master returned the second time. Not to prepare dinner and also not to complain, but with a slightly concerned look on his face.

"What's wrong?" the Doctor asked, immediately on edge. The Master being concerned never was a good sign.

"Has anyone of you seen Roka today?" he asked and let his gaze wander over everyone.

They looked at each other and one by one shook their head, worry now spreading between them too. Only Amy had a mean smirk forming on her lips.

"Maybe she finally had enough of your face and bolted," she sassily teased the Master.

His brows knitted together, almost touching, and he slightly shook his head. The words Amy had spoken when she had been hypnotized flashed through his mind once again, and as they had the first time, they hurt now even more. But no...

"Wouldn't leave without her Vortex Manipulator. That's for sure." He didn't doubt much that she could be tired of him, or the others, but knew her way too well to know she wouldn't risk losing her only way of travelling. In that regard they were very much the same.

"Well... maybe she's gone into the woods," the Doctor pondered.

No one had a better idea, and when the Doctor also didn't find her in the TARDIS, he decided to wait a little longer.

They ate what had been left from the previous evening and afterwards gathered around the fireplace once more. But the atmosphere wasn't as cosy and relaxed as the night prior. Worry grew more and more the later it got.

"Could have gotten lost," Jeremiah thought out loud. "It's a big area."

None of them had paid too much attention to Mike the whole time, so they all were surprised when the boy suddenly appeared in the living room, his cheeks red from the cold.

"Oh boy, where have you been?!" The old man shot up and grabbed Mike by his shoulders. "How often have I told you not to leave the house after dinner?"

"I just wanted to see if that woman is outside somewhere," the kid defended himself. "And I found this." He held out a padded plaid shirt. "At the old hot spring."

The Master tore the shirt out of his hands so fast, Mike stumbled a bit. It was the very same he had left with Roka the night before.

"Bring me there!" he demanded, feeling anger welling up. "Now!"

No one protested, although Mike had to stay inside the cabin, only accompanied by Rory, while the old Jeremiah brought the others to the place where an almost perfect circle of uncovered ground stuck out of the snow. The Doctor walked over it with big steps, then lay flat on his stomach, pressing his ear to the ground. Only a few seconds later he shot up to his knees, let some of the earth run through his fingers and licked at it afterwards, ignoring the Master's disgusted look.

"That's..." the Doctor stood and let his sonic whir over the ground, while turning around himself. "Very interesting. Astonishing even, if I might say so."

"Stop making yourself so important," the Master growled and pushed him out of the way to take a closer look at the mould of ground the Doctor had ignored so far. It had nothing special to it though and there were no indications as to where it came from or if it had anything to do with the whole ordeal.

The Master kicked the dirt with a frustrated grunt.

"We'll find her, promise," the Doctor tried to assure, but got roughly grabbed by his bowtie by the Master.

"Hey, hey!" Amy called out and trod to the two. "It won't help if we beat ourselves up now." She put her hands between them, pushing the Master away slightly.

He let it happen, but gave her a dooming glare, while he hesitantly let go. The Doctor refused to comment this action with a single word and instead proceeded to scan the surroundings with his sonic screwdriver some more.

Eventually the Master threw a last mean look at Amy and decided that sulking around wouldn't help much. Instead he got out a tablet and typed in some data, before he did some scans of his own, a bit farther away.

Not much later though and he heard a yelp that sounded suspiciously like Amy.

"Doctor!" she called out. "Doctor help me! Something's got me!"

With a sigh he returned to see what the ruckus was about and was kinda baffled to find the red head sunken up to her waist into the heap of ground he had noticed before. The Doctor was lying in front of the woman, holding her arm with both hands and obviously struggled hard to keep her from getting sucked into the earth some more.

"Master! Help me here!" he screamed and desperately stemmed his weight against the ground to hold Amy in place.

It took the Master several seconds to decide whether or not it would be worth the struggle, and he watched with a mixture of amusement and pity how the Doctor tried so hard to keep that human from getting sucked into the ground. But in the end this could give them a clue as to where Roka had vanished, so he kneeled down next to Amy and grabbed her other arm to pull at her with all his strength.

The red head didn't budge.

"What is this? Why is it doing it?" she begged for answer, her voice strained with tears of panic.

"Amy, don't let go of my hand, you hear me?" the Doctor implored. "Don't struggle or it will make things worse."

"You two can get me out, right?" Amy's eyes shot back and forth between the Time Lords, her body sinking a few inches deeper. "You have to. Please don't leave me."

"Oh, stop whining, human!" the Master growled and tried to grab her under her arms to get her out of the ground. But whatever it was that had gotten a hold of Amy, it was way too strong.

"What's there? What's pulling on me?" she cried out. "I don't want to suffocate under there."

It was no use, the Master realized and let go of her. They wouldn't get her out of it, and with every passing second Amy vanished deeper into the hole. His heartbeat started to increase painfully at the thought that Roka might have suffered the same fate, while being all alone during it.

And it had been almost a whole day before they had found this place.

"Hey, don't you give up!" the Doctor demanded and swallowed hard.

The pull got stronger and Amy's head was barely reaching over the ground. Her eyes filled with terror and tears, but also resentment. "Tell Rory..." she begun, her voice shaky.

But before her last words could get out, the ground had already swallowed her whole, leaving nothing but silence and two dumbfounded Time Lords behind. Minutes dragged by, painfully slow and without a single spoken word. Seldom before had the Master seen the Doctor so devastated, and he surprisingly found himself disliking the sight for maybe the first time in centuries.

And as if things wouldn't be bad enough already, Rory now strode towards them, his eyes skimming the scene for Amy, of course finding nothing.

"I heard screams," he got out, his words accompanied by cold vapour. "Where's Amy?"

The Doctor rushed a hand over his face, clearly at a loss for words.

"Rory! I'll take her back!"

"Back? Where is she?" He stepped in the Doctor's way to keep him from moving past him.

"She was taken.... into the earth, the Doctor tried to explain and he almost desperately tried not to look at Rory directly.

The young man was visibly shaken, not willing to accept what he had just heard. "How? Why didn't you stop it?"

"I tried!" the Doctor let out frustrated.

"Then you should have tried harder!" Rory shouted in such a way that surprised the Master. He hadn't awaited this small and weak man to be able to get so angry. "And what now? Why are you not doing anything?!"

"Because I don't know _what_!" the Doctor shouted back. "Let me think... think. There has to be something. Something triggered the ground." Once more he let his sonic wander over the mould, tried out different frequencies.

"It's bio-programmed," the Master suddenly said, eyes glued to his tablet. "The whole ground in and around the dried spring." The data showed it clearly, although it didn't make much sense.

"What? But why here? They use it to terraform jungle planets and the like and to..."

The Master had already stopped listening to those ramblings and instead glared at the devastated Rory, whose face displayed the same eagerness to act that he felt himself. Their brief talk from the previous day came to his mind, and he couldn't stop himself from feeling a slight acknowledgment towards him.

The realization was met with confusion. Since when did he feel anything but contempt towards a human? Maybe because he could understand how he felt right now? It didn't matter. There were more urgent things to focus on. And right now this whole ordeal only let him one option.

"Let's follow them," he suggested.

"Follow?" Rory stared back, dumbfounded. "C... can we?"

"I guess so... This is only programming... advanced and extremely complicated, but only code nonetheless. Meaning it can be hacked." The Master pushed his tablet into Rory's hands to abuse him as a hold and started to send different signals to the ground.

"Can you do that?" the Doctor asked from behind, tiptoeing around to get a glance at what the Master was doing.

"You said it yourself. I'm a genius," he bragged with a mean smirk on his lips. "Shouldn't be too much of an issue. I took over half of a planet once with letting the rest of it vanish beneath the ground."

He ignored the Doctor's exasperated sigh and Rory's fearful look and eventually spun around to the Doctor to snatch the sonic out of his hands.

"Hey! Give it back!" he protested.

But the Master only aimed it at the mould and satisfied watched as the ground started to vibrate and emanate white smoke. After that he tossed the screwdriver back towards the Doctor, who caught it clumsily.

"You stay here," the Master told. "We need some backup for the worst case. Rory, with me!"

"Oi, Master! I'm way better for this. _You_ stay behind!" the Doctor demanded.

"Yeah... and you really trust me to get you out of danger?" he asked back with the sweetest smile.

The Doctor answered with an eye-roll and crossed his arms with a pout.

"We... really do this?" Rory finally squeaked, glaring at the ground.

"Want to save your little ape princess or not?" the Master sneered and slid one leg after the other into the ground.

They immediately got sucked in, and he tried to ignore every single one of his survival instincts when the earth swiftly closed above his head. But his tablet had informed him that there was breathable air below the surface, and surprised he found himself standing on some kind of small platform that now moved downwards in an alarming speed, only to spit him out into an empty room. The walls were barren and made of brown earth, and only a diffuse, greenish light illuminated the place out of seemingly nowhere. Nothing indicated where exactly he might be.

Next to him the elevator landed again with a metallic vibrating sound, letting a confused Rory stumble outside. "Ohhhh, that was wild," he complained and looked around. Then his eyes locked on the Master and he furrowed his brows. "Why are you so eager to help me find Amy?"

The Master chuckled and shook his head, walking towards the bare brown walls to observe them. "Save her on your own. I'm not here for her."

There was a panel on the wall, grey in colour and looking so old, it was barely believable that it would still work. But the lights blinked and when the Master pushed the button there was a grinding sound reverberating through the room, before a doorframe cut through the earthen wall in front of them.

"What is this even?" Rory asked and followed outside into a tunnel that was almost completely overgrown with tropical looking plants and lit by the same sourceless glow.

"No idea," the Master grumbled, not being in the mood for chit-chat.

He rushed to the end of the tunnel, producing his laser screwdriver from his pocket on the way and then activated another key pad that opened a weirdly decorated gate. Both men carefully peeked outside first, before exiting and taking in the astonishing sight. The Master whistled respectfully, turning around himself.

"Now look at that, human. I think we found your ancestors."

They stood inside an enormous, spacious cave, right in the middle of a wide road, spanning over the scenery of a small city. The buildings were all in green and earthen tones and looked as if they were either grown or at least built to look like plants and objects from nature.

It was hard not to shoot some laser bolts into them, just to see if anyone was living there. But there were more urgent matters at hand right now, so causing some fun havoc would have to wait.

"Why is there a city below the earth?" asked Rory sheepishly, trying to keep his voice low.

"If you ask me... those were probably silurian's. Or lizards, if that helps you more."

"Wait... you're not talking of actual lizard people, do you?"

The Master snickered and threw an amused glance at Rory. "Sometimes old stories are true." He waved a hand down to the impressive city. "As you can see."

"Are they... alive?"

The answer presented itself in form of an actual inhabitant, that suddenly rounded a corner and came face to face with their visitors. The creature stopped dead in its tracks, gaping at the two and instinctively raised its hands when it saw the laser screwdriver pointing at its chest.

"I saw the trap going off. How did you get down here?" The voice sounded like that of a male. He had a slightly roundish face and wore what could only be described as a laboratory coat.

"Och, bit of hacking and a good portion of _where the hell have you taken the humans_?" the Master growled and shot a short beam at the ground next to the silurian's feet.

He winced in shock and frantically looked around as if hoping there would be any help around. A clear sign that he probably wasn't the only one inside this cave.

"Just... follow me," the guy invited a bit shaking and nodded to where he had come from.

Rory stepped in, proving once more to be a lot braver than he looked like when he approached the lizard. "For your own wellbeing, tell me, you haven't harmed Amy! I... I don't care what creature you are. Just don't you dare-"

The lizard man stepped back, raising his hands once more in a defensive manner. "No! No... I never harm them. We only conserve and study."

"Alright, move," the Master demanded darkly, shooting another bolt right into the man's shoulder. He cried out in pain, but moved hastily to avoid another wound.

"I swear, they are all right," he implored, holding his shoulder. "Normally the trap is only meant for animals, but when an actual human got caught in it I was extra careful!"

The lizard lead them over the bridge and down a way between some houses, before they finally reached a bigger building with a metal door that they entered. Inside was an astonishing collection of devices and research equipment. This species had been quite advanced, the Master realized.

Rory was silent the whole way, gnawing on his upper lip and throwing insecure glances around. It was clear that he was a coward, but deep in his heart seemed to slumber a yet untouched fire, and the Master surprisingly found himself admiring it. The Doctor truly knew how to pick his companions.

"There we are," the green scaled man croaked and slid a key card through a sensor, opening another set of metal doors with it.

They followed inside and found a set of tube like chambers set into the walls. All of them had a glass door that separated their inmates from the outside world. And in there, finally, was Roka and next to her Amy, both standing upright inside their cells; unconscious or sleeping, and prepared with several wires and tubes, leading to their mouths and noses.

The Master spun around and grabbed the lizard's throat, shooting all his anger at the man. "Get her out. Now! And don't you dare trying any tricks!" With that he pushed him away and aimed his laser screwdriver at his chest once again.

Rory looked surprised at Roka, then at the Master, and something seemed to click in his head, even though he didn't say a word about it. Instead he watched as the green man typed in some numbers into a field and then opened the glass doors, before removing all the gear from Amy. Her eyes creped open shortly after and Rory ran forward to catch her in his arms and place a kiss to her forehead.

"Oh, Amy. You're alive and well," he muttered into her hair and held her tight.

The Master tried to ignore the two, and also the weird sting that went through him. Was that envy? He wasn't quite sure of it and knew only that it was confusing. And he hated confusing things.

The lizard was done freeing Roka from the devices and turned to the Master. "Interesting one. Quite different to all other humans we caught so far. Her brain is a bit peculiar and it seems there is something off with the density of her matter. Also... that one doesn't seem to age."

"Yeah, I know all that," the Master grumbled and rushed past the guy. "Now get lost, before I kill you for real."

Roka opened her eyes and blinked a few times, before her muscles seemed to notice that she was standing upright and decided to refuse their service. She swayed a little and stumbled forward a step, bumping right into the Master, who grabbed her shoulders and glanced down at her puzzled face. She slightly sunk together against him, her single heart beating fast, but strong and steady. Relieve flooded the Master at seeing her well and it was almost an impossibility not to enclose her in his arms. But the struggle with himself couldn't last long, as she already pushed a hand against his chest and herself away from him.

"Where are we?" she asked perplex and also took the hand down. "All I remember is that white smoke and..." She shook her head and recognized Amy and Rory standing nearby, then the lizard, even though he didn't seem to surprise her much. "Where's the Doctor?"

For a second the Master stared down, took in the appearance of her, how she stood there, so close to him, but in her head so far away, not even looking in his direction as if he were the least important thing inside this room. A slight anger welled up inside of him and he stepped away with crossed arms.

Rory answered in his place, "He stayed above to get us back if things go wrong."

"Wait," Amy protested. "He let you two go all alone?"

Her question stayed unanswered though, as the sound of heavy boots cut through the room. Everyone spun around and found themselves face to face with a rough dozen of silurians, all wearing quite scary looking masks to cover their faces. A female siluarian stepped forwards, her face uncovered, but wearing a veil of hatred on it instead.

"You apes have intruded our sleeping realm," she hissed. "We can't let you leave and tell the others of your kind of this place. We saw what you did to our planet, and we will not give you any chance to do the same with us."

"Hey, I'm not one of them!" the Master protested pouting.

The commander's head snapped towards him. "Silence! We do not care where you come from. As long as you are with them, you will die too. Take aim!" She raised a hand and let it hang threatening in the air.

But those meagre creatures were no match against the Master. In his head he already calculated his next move, certain of having the advantage.

"Wait, wait!" the scientist lizard stepped between them, hands raised. "This is all a misunderstanding. My trap caught some of theirs and all they wanted was to get them back."

The Master felt slightly nudged into his side and glanced down to find Roka next to him, standing straight and ready, eyes glued to the scenery ahead. Then she lifted her gaze and met his eyes. "They won't leave us," she uttered, and he nodded. "Master? Can I still trust you?"

Without ever taking his eyes from hers he furrowed his brows and squinted his eyes at her, unsure why she asked such a dumb question. He nodded once more. "Yeah, of course you can."

And then she smiled at him. The same grim and determined smile he had known so well, before the time on Gallifrey, when they had still travelled together. And his hearts jumped a little as an almost forgotten warmth spread in his chest at the sight.

"Good," Roka looked back to the arguing lizards, then nodded towards a machine to their right. "Shoot your laser at that. And then keep my back."

Without hesitation the Master aimed and let the machine explode in smoke and sparks. All heads snapped in the direction and Roka took the opportunity to strike. She was astonishingly fast. Slow and clumsy, compared to other species, but for a human there was a certain graze and expertise in her movements. Something that only came to pass with decades of hard training.

Before the Master could react on his own, Roka already had slipped behind the soldiers and had stolen two knifes, which she now wielded, slicing through flesh and armour with precision and speed, while ducking and twisting out of the way whenever one of the lizards tried to attack. The Master supported the fight with his laser screwdriver, sending one silurian after the other to the ground, until no one but the scientist was left, crouched in a corner and defensively holding his arms above his head in fear.

Silence fell over the room, as soon as all soldiers had been felled. Rory glared at the lifeless bodies, Amy had her hands pressed over her mouth, eyes wide in shock and wandering to Roka, who cleaned the knifes on the clothes of one of the dead soldiers.

"You... killed them!" Amy let out after a moment, sounding shocked and confused.

The Master too was surprised. When they had separated Roka had been whining about how horrible she had felt for taking some minor lives. And now the same woman stood in front of him, her face unreadable and unmoved by what had just transpired. Her head only raised to meet Amy's eyes.

"They came here to kill us, so they should expect to die," Roka only said. "Or did you want them to shoot us?"

"Please... don't... don't kill me too," the remaining lizard whined from the ground.

The Master already aimed his laser screwdriver at him, but lowered it, when Roka trod past him and raised a hand. She then squatted down next to the scientist.

"Then don't call more of them," she said, but her voice was free of any threat. She even reached out a hand to help the man up. "And it would be nice of you to show us a way back."

The lizard nodded and tried not to look at the fallen soldiers. "It... eh... I can't promise anything. They are probably already alarmed. And it might take a while. Our elevators aren't made to bring anyone up. Only down. At least the regular ones. But we can't use the official machines. That would alarm practically _everyone_ that is currently awake."

"That's fine!" Amy called out. "Everything will do. Just don't... uhhh... I don't even want to look at them!" She turned away and buried her face in her hands. Rory lay an arm around her, also careful to look the other way.

"I've got a better idea," the Master grumbled, unwilling to wait down here even a second longer. He produced his tablet from his jacket pocket and started to type.

"What are you doing?" Rory asked, carefully glancing over.

"Sending our coordinates to the Doctor's Sonic. He shall move his bowtied arse down here and get us out."

No sooner had he ended the sentence did they hear heavy steps once again. Roka readied her knifes, the Master pocketed the tablet and aimed his laser, while Amy and Rory pushed themselves against the wall, together with the scientist.

And then it happened. Amy saw it first and let out a panicking squeak, alarming the others to turn their head to a nearby wall where a crack had started to form, pouring out white, blinding light into the room.

"Oh, great," the Master grunted and shot the first appearing soldier, before he could even enter the room properly.

A short moment of hell broke loose, as the others stormed inside, attacking immediately and without mercy. Roka was among them in an instant, dancing with her knifes like a whirlwind, while the others fell through blasts of energy. Meanwhile the crack widened with alarming speed, already sucking the first soldiers in. As with the clerics in the tomb, the other lizards immediately forgot what had happened to their comrades and barely tried to stay away from the crack.

Then, finally, the familiar humming of the TARDIS filled the air, and the blue box started to materialize in the middle of the room, leaving the remaining attackers dumbfounded for just long enough to expose themselves. When the TARDIS had landed properly they all lay slain on the ground, greeting the out-stepping Doctor with hollow eyes.

"Oh no... no, no, no! What have you done!" he exclaimed in shock and hurled around. "Why have you killed them all? Are those silurian's?! How have they survived? And what will they think of humans now?"

"Self defence." The Master shrugged it off and gave Roka an appreciating nod.

She truly had become a small devil with those knives. But on the other hand did she still possess her usual kindness he had grown to somehow like so much. The scientist still being alive and her behaviour towards him was proof enough. The thought soothed his mind. He really wouldn't want her to become... like himself.

"In with you!" the Doctor frantically waved towards the opened doors. "Quickly, before more arrive. Oh, this is a disaster!"

They all pressed inside, Amy and Rory following last. But right as Amy was through the doors, they heard a single gunshot reverberating through the room.

For a brief moment it seemed as if it might have been only an illusion, but then they saw one of the lizards crawling on its stomach towards them, gun in hands. Time came to a halt, as they looked around to see if anything had happened. And at first it seemed as if the shot had missed. But then Rory suddenly collapsed to the ground, a hand pressed against his now heavily bleeding stomach.

With a shriek Amy ran towards him, her hands shaking as she pressed them over the wound. "No, Rory! Come on! Inside the TARDIS. We can fix this. We can... come on. Don't do that to me. Don't... no! Rory!"

The man in her arms barely managed to raise his hand to caress her cheek one last time. White light from the crack already started to wrap around his legs with spindly ropes, as if it would sense a feast. He knew he would never see her again, knew his love and only light would have to learn to live without him from now on. And if he weren't dying already, the thought would surely tear all life out of his body.

"I will always... always... love you, Amy," he whispered.

Without even thinking the Doctor sprang towards them both and tore at Amy's arm, dragging her away and ignoring her struggles.

"Leave meeee!" she screamed and tried to hit him with all the strength of desperation. "Rory! Noooo!"

"The crack already got him. We have to get away, or we'll get sucked in as well," the Doctor ground out with a last, sad look at the scientist lizard. He, too, would vanish soon. And there were no angels to be fed to the crack this time.

He pushed Amy inside and slammed the doors shut behind them all, then sprinted to the console and got the TARDIS moving to get them as far away from the crack as possible. Only then did he kneel down in front of Amy and cupped her face to glare into her eyes.

"You have to remember, you hear me? You can keep Rory in your mind, _don't_ forget him!"

"But I'm a Time Traveller," she whined. "Why would I...?"

"He's your personal history. That's why you have to remember, Amy. Keep the images, all the memories, no matter if good or bad. Hold them all, keep them alive in your mind."

"I'm trying," she cried. "I can't... can't... remember his face. It's gone, Doctor! Why is it gone?!"

"No, no! It's still there, concentrate!" He pressed his thumbs against her temples in an effort to help her memories, pushing images of Rory from his own mind into hers. "Do you see him?"

"Yes... I do. I see... He is dead! Oh god, Doctor, he is dead!" she screamed in tears and tried to struggle free from the Doctor's hold. "I can't... let me go back! Please Doctor, I can't leave him there. Pleeease... please let me..." Tears streamed down her face, her voice laced with sobs and desperation.

A short, but violent jolt went through the whole TARDIS all of a sudden, sending the Doctor to the floor. He shot up again immediately, taking Amy's shoulders to glare into her eyes.

Only to find that they had changed.

Where before had been anger and desperation, there now was only puzzlement whilst she wiped the tears from her face.

"Why... was I crying?" she asked perplex. "Oh, that's weird. I really shouldn't. I mean... we escaped those lizards. That's a good thing."

The Doctor gulped and let go of her, slowly raising to his feet and clenching his hands to fists. "Yes... that's a good thing."

"Oof... I'm exhausted, guys. I think I'm heading to bed for today. That was quite the adventure, wasn't it?" she rambled on. "Ah, anyway. Good night all of you!" She waved around and marched towards the doors to the inside.

A long drawn silence lingered in the console room for what felt like an eternity. Roka slumped down on one of the jump seats and finally let the knifes fall that she had clung to the whole time, as if they were some kind of life line. It had been a necessity to learn how to fight... but it didn't mean she ever enjoyed it.

"_What have you done?!_" the Doctor suddenly shouted, making Roka jump in surprise.

But it hadn't been directed at her, but at the Master, who now stood next to the console, his hand still on a lever. Had he been responsible for the turbulence? Judging by the Doctor's reaction it had to be the case.

"I trusted you!" he went on angrily, stepping close to the other man.

"And since when is that a good idea?" the Master sneered and gave him a nasty grin.

The Doctor let out a defiant groan, but his anger clearly hadn't subsided the least, as he proceeded to attack the Master. "It was so close! It almost worked! You bloody idiot! She could have remembered him!"

"Yeah." The Master stayed calm and composed, completely unfazed by the Doctor's ire. But something else was in his eyes. Roka noticed it, when he glanced at her for a few seconds. "I had to stop that from happening."

"What?!" the Doctor let out, dumbfounded. "Why would you be so cruel?!"

A small laugh escaped the Master. He leaned closer to the Doctor, his look suddenly so serious and filled with and unspoken pain. "That boy was _dead_. And you want her to carry that unbearable pain with her for the remainder of her days, when she had the opportunity to simply forget? Who's the cruel one here?" His head turned away and he almost protectively folded his arms over his chest.

The Doctor rushed a hand over his face with a deep sigh, then suddenly let it fall and glared at the Master with an utterly perplex expression on his face.

"Wait... you did _what_?"

In that moment Roka realized it too and stood to tread next to the Doctor, carefully observing the Master's puzzled face.

"What are you planning with Amy?" she asked and squinted her eyes at him.

"What?" he asked perplex. "Why would you think..."

"Because you actually... probably helped her," Roka countered. "And knowing you, I doubt it was for any good reason."

The Doctor nodded in agreement, glaring at the other Time Lord, who now acted like a cornered animal, raising his hands slightly and backing off a step, confusion and anger displaying on his face. But then the Doctor's feature softened and he slightly inclined his head.

"Don't tell me... you're developing empathy," he remarked astonished.

"Pshaw! Don't insult me, Doctor!" the Master spat. "I just... I don't even know! Maybe I didn't want her to whine around about it all day. But I definitely, absolutely, never ever would develop... no!" His eyes darted back and forth between the Doctor and Roka, confusion and maybe even some fear glimmering in them all of a sudden. He raised both hands, clawing them into his hair as if he was hurting, and shook his head.

"That's not who I am," he muttered, his voice almost desperate. "That's not me. Not..."

Roka carefully reached out a hand to touch his arm, dumbfounded about this reaction. His eyes snapped towards hers and for an incredibly short moment it seemed as if they were twitching slightly, quite as they had done when the drums had still possessed his mind.

"Master?" she asked carefully, unsure if she had only imagined it.

But the moment was gone too fast, and not a second later the Master shot straight and pushed past them. Without another word he rushed away, slamming the doors shut behind him.

Roka let out a breath, she only now realized she had been holding in. It had been an illusion, nothing else. The rest of his behaviour was strange enough on its own already.


	16. II - Finding purpose

**Act II - Finding purpose**

In which no one is certain of themselves anymore and might need a helping hand in finding their way

* * *

They started to observe Amy. All of them.

The Doctor was worried about her and still felt sorry because he hadn't been able to preserve her memory of Rory. The Master and Roka both were curious as to how someone might act when they had been stripped of such an important memory.

It seemed as if Amy were as she had always been. Sassy, adventurous and somehow always in a good mood. But sometimes... there were short moments where she was absent and her eyes wandered to someplace else entirely. When she came back there was a look on her face Roka knew too well. That of having suddenly forgotten something that had been clear in her head just seconds ago, and she wondered if Amy might have short bursts of remembrance here and there.

After two days of this and not many or noteworthy adventures Amy finally had enough.

"You all act totally weird, just so you know," she stated with her fists in her hips. "I'm fine, really. Those lizards haven't harmed me at all."

"I... yeah... I know," the Doctor stammered, rubbing his neck. "It's not that though. Err..."

His gaze shot to the others, but Roka, sitting with a book in the jump seat, only shrugged and the Master, who was busy playing Tetris on the console monitor, gave him his darkest stare, so the Doctor decided not to mention Rory and just came up with the first thing that might make sense to Amy.

"You're... not mad at me, right?" he decided to ask. "I mean... because I let go of your hand and couldn't get you out sooner and all that..."

Amy sighed and smiled at him. "Nooo, silly Doctor. Why would I be mad? Sure, it wasn't the greatest experience, but it's the danger I chose and now I have to live with things going wrong here and there, don't I?"

"Yeeeaaah.... Still. I'm sorry about that, Amy. I really am."

"Ah, forget it." She waved his apology away. "But Doctor... I thought for a while and... I might need a small break."

"Oh... of course."

"Just for a day," she smiled reassuringly. "I kinda miss my aunty and want to give her a hug, sleep in my own bed for a night and stuff, you know? And tomorrow you can get me back and we can have something amazing happening. How's that?"

"Tomorrow..." The Doctor shifted uncomfortably, remembering that _tomorrow_ had been supposed to be the marriage, and now it would never happen. But nonetheless, he couldn't deny her plea. "Yeah, sure. Let's do that."

"And don't be some years late this time." Amy waved a warning finger at him.

"No! The TARDIS works fine again. And to make sure I'll park her in your yard and stay put. No adventures while you have your break."

"As if you would survive that," she mocked giggling and rushed to the doors. "Come on then! Bring me home, alien boy. Ohhh, by the way, you wanna come with me, Roka?"

The other woman looked up from her reading matter and blinked dumbfounded at Amy. Part of her already was about to refuse, but some other part somehow had a weird urge to experience such a perfectly ordinary, _human_ day. And it would be a great opportunity to get away from the Master.

"Yeah... why not." Roka shut the book and hopped from the jump seat. "Might not be a bad idea to get out for a bit."

"Exactly my thought!" Amy seconded and grinned widely.

The Doctor resigned, seeing that he had no say in this matter any longer. Everyone held tight onto whatever they could reach when he activated the console to get the TARDIS back to where he had picked up Amy the last time. Only seconds later, though, the Master casually reached a hand out and knocked over the blue stabilizers, not even bothering with giving the Doctor an eye roll. The other Time Lord only grumbled something that clearly had the word _boring_ in it.

"If everything's so dull, Doctor... I still have a formidable stack of ideas in my head to kill you." The Master grinned wide and wickedly.

"I'm not sure it's wise to leave those two alone," Amy murmured towards Roka.

She shrugged and watched as they threw venomous glances at each other. "Well... they could have murdered another so many times already. I don't think they would risk ruining their silly game."

"Let's hope so. Not that the Doctor would harm him... or... well... at least not murder him. Eh... they'll be fine...ish." Amy chuckled and tore open the doors after the TARDIS had finally, and boringly smoothly, landed. "On then! A normal girls-day awaits us!"

They stepped out into the backyard and marched towards the house, when Amy suddenly stopped and let out an, "Oh, right."

"What is it?"

"My aunty isn't even here. She booked a trip to Lanzarote." She glanced around and looked somewhat confused. "How weird. I could swear she was supposed to be here for... tomorrow. No... makes no sense."

Roka said nothing to that. Rory's disappearance must have altered a bunch of things in and around Amy's life. The only strange thing about it was that she seemingly had fractions of memories of that old timeline. _Something_ must have stuck with her due to the Doctor's endeavours.

First, Amy showed Roka around the house, excitedly hopping around and being her usual fidgety self, while telling the story of how the raggedy Doctor had been so picky about food the night they had met. She also showed her the room where prisoner zero had hidden in all these years. They had scrubbed it clean and were now using it as an additional storage room. Amy also showed her the spot where the crack in her wall had once been. Of course, nothing was visible anymore, but Roka stroked a finger over it anyway, wondering why some of these cracks just worked like portals and others sucked in reality.

She also observed all the dolls and painting Amy had done of the Doctor and the TARDIS. There were so many, it was no wonder she had been told to be mad. How must it feel to her to have her dreams come true and to be finally on adventures with her imaginary friend? Maybe Roka should ask.

"It's only ever me talking," Amy eventually threw in, as if she had read her thoughts. "We had some cool adventures together already, but I still know almost nothing about you."

"Uh... I'm a lot less interesting than you make me seem." Roka shrugged and sat on Amy's bed. "Oh wow. That's fluffy!" She let herself fall backwards and stretched out her arms. "Mhm... well... How about the fact that I haven't slept in beds much the last years."

"Why not?" Amy sat next to her and glanced down. "Couldn't you just jump in and out of... I don't know... a hotel or something else? I'd totally do that!"

"Sometimes I did." She put her hands behind her head, reminiscing about those days. "The first years or so, actually. But then... hm... It just became less and less important somehow. It's awesome to see the stars above your head, to hear the wind in the trees or the waves of the sea." Her voice became a little dreamy. "It's... freedom."

"Huh... I see." Amy laid back too and stared up to the ceiling. "One day we have to travel a bit together. Just the two of us, okay? I want to see some of the places you've been. Did you fight aliens? I saw how fast you are! That was amaaaazing! And a bit scary. I probably shouldn't make you angry." She chuckled.

"Necessity." Roka shrugged. "I don't enjoy it, but if you want to stay alive... there often is only one choice. I'm no Time Lord or other superior species. Humans are... extremely fragile, compared to other things out there."

"Yeah... I guess it's easier said than done not to use weapons. The Doctor can do that... but he's so much faster and stronger than we are. And smarter. Gosh, smart guys are just sexy." Amy giggled and glanced sideways. "That Master bloke also isn't too dumb when he's not busy pranking everyone."

Roka only grunted and rolled her eyes.

"Really," Amy continued nonchalantly, "I don't get what the deal between the two of you is. Yeah, yeah, you told me... but come oooo-"

"Amy..."

"What?"

"Stop it." Roka sat up and glanced out the window. "No idea what you're interpreting into whatever, but I really don't want him anywhere near me anymore."

"Because you don't like him? Or because you're afraid to let anyone at all into your bubble?" Her voice hadn't been accusatory, only understanding and warm. And softly she added, "You should come out of there."

A sting went through Roka at those words. Regardless of Amy's understanding of the situation, the thing about the bubble was very true. With a sigh she looked over and flopped down on her back again, then rolled to her side to face Amy. "I don't know how," she mumbled. "People are so complicated. I never know what to do with them."

A warm smile widened on Amy's face. "I could teach you. Just listen to your big sis and all will go well."

It really was hard not to like Amy. The longer Roka was around her, the more she wished they could be real friends. And this offer and the way she treated her was like an invitation now, making Roka smile back a little. "Okay... I'll try."

Amy chuckled and hopped from the bed. "Then come! Let's err... mhm... Good question. First of all, we should leave the house. Sitting around here all day will do nothing good. Maybe we meet Mels somewhere... if not, we could... Oh! Let's do some shopping!"

"Uh... what do you need?" Roka stood and stretched her limbs.

"Nothing. It's just for fun."

"Oh... you mean that whole - _spend money on stuff you actually don't need -_ thing. I see."

Amy burst out laughing and wrapped her arms around Roka. "Oh, my poor little thing. You have to learn a lot."

Roka threw an impish glance upwards. "I was joking."

"Oi!" She let go and nudged her playfully. "For that, you'll pay everything!"

"Weeell.... I actually happen to have quite the filled bank account."

"Yeah, sure." Amy snorted and lead them downstairs.

"No, really. It's not that hard, when you jump around a little and find out when money isn't worth much and when it is. I mean... it's technically cheating, but who cares?"

While snatching some keys and a purse from a small cabinet, Amy turned slightly around and her look told clearly what she thought about the truth of that statement, making Roka sigh. "Alright... let's head to the bank first," she suggested. "It's not as if I'd need that money anyway."

They finally reached the front door and stepped outside to a friendly and almost sunny day. Only a few spare clouds hung in the blue sky and the temperature was pleasant. Amy lead them down a road that was framed by vegetation and sleepy houses, until they reached the bank. Roka though hesitated at the door and instead took a long look at the surrounding street.

It was weird, but somehow this place felt... familiar. Sure, small places like these looked very alike oftentimes, but still. Could it be?

"Say... this places doesn't happen to be called Leadworth?" she finally asked.

"Yep. Did the Doctor tell you?"

Roka shook her head and blinked a few times to get her mind back in order. This definitely was a surprise. Almost an impossibility! But a glance back at Amy made her decide not to mention anything for now. She wasn't eager to answer all the questions that would inevitably follow. Instead she entered the bank building and produced a card from her wallet, letting it slip into one of the machines, where she entered her pin and then waved Amy over.

"Well, let's see," she mocked friendly and leaned to the display. Her face dropped in an instant and her mouth suddenly hung wide open. "Holy space whale!" Amy let out. "You weren't lying!"

"Why should I?" Roka retorted amused. "Mhm... knowing this place... I mean... places like this... they probably don't have many stores that let you pay with a card..." After a short consideration she let the machine produce the maximum amount of money that it could give out on a single day. "Should be enough for some nick-knacks," she remarked smug and pocketed the money. "Guess I could treat you to some ice cream."

"You're rich!" Amy let out, when they had left the building. "God damn rich! Why didn't you... I don't know... buy a house! A mansion! And a swimming pool! Gosh, I want a pool!"

"I do have a small flat in London, now that you mention it," Roka reminisced. "But there's only a bed, a table and some gaming consoles in it."

"What? Why?"

"Why not? It's cool to have a place to play some old games from time to time."

Amy groaned and giggled. "You're a nerd! All that money! And all you do with it is buy gaming equipment."

"Be glad. Everything's on me today."

A happy yelp from Amy later they strolled to the nearest bus stop and drove to the city. It was a short ride, and soon after they stood in a crowd of people, bustlingly walking around. Suddenly Roka stopped dead in her tracks and faced Amy.

"Which year is it?" she wanted to know.

"It's 2010... in case the Doctor hasn't dropped us in the wrong time." Amy bowed down to some newspaper on a stand nearby. "Yup, right date. 26th June 2010. Why're you asking?"

"Eh, no reason at all... was just curious," Roka mumbled and then dragged Amy away and towards the centre of the town. "Let's do some shopping, right? Having fun and stuff."

Sooner or later she would have to give answers, that was obvious when she looked at her companion. Luckily they both were more eager for some fun than for anything else right now, and for the rest of the time Roka made sure not to give off any hints.

For a while they strolled through different stores, trying on all sorts of clothes, preferably some that didn't match at all. Amy tried to get Roka to wear something more female than usual, completely in vain, but she still never got tired of it. In the end Roka had enough and snatched a wide straw head with a flower from a pedestal, flopped it on her head and called for Amy, who promptly got a laughing fit.

"You'd have to grow a little more for that one," she teased and grabbed another wide hat, standing next to Roka and watched them both in the mirror. "We're absolutely fabulous!"

They both grinned from ear to ear at the sight, and Roka decided it had been a great idea to follow Amy. If this was how people usually had fun, she could totally get used to it.

Outside the same store, in the same city and the same time stood someone else, peeking inside with a scowl, hands buried deep inside his pant pockets.

"I don't get it. Doctor, explain."

"Explain what? They're having fun. Normal, hilarious human fun. Should be obvious, even to you, Master."

The other one grunted. "Look at her! Laughing like an idiot."

"Isn't that good?"

"No! Yes..." the Master fell silent for a few seconds, before adding, "Why can this red head make her so happy, and I can't?"

"Because she doesn't treat her like a prisoner maybe?" The Doctor fidgeted around, barely able to stand still for the few minutes they had been here now. "Come now. Leave them alone."

Grumbling something inaudible the Master turned away from the window, and if his pockets would have allowed it, he would have thrust his hands even deeper inside them. Instead he only threw a death-promising look at the other Time Lord. "Neither do I," he eventually deigned to respond. "Mostly."

"See?" the Doctor cheered. "That's the subtle, but important difference."

He scoffed and turned to take a look at the city around. "And why haven't you told me, that your little pet lives _here_ of all places?"

The Doctor stopped tip-toeing ahead while avoiding the joints of the cobblestone, and turned back. "Why? You know this town?"

"Not really." The Master stood still, glanced around and was suddenly lost inside a memory for a good minute, before he slowly shook his head, banishing the memory of a night next to a bonfire. A night where the drums had rendered him mad for a few hours, only to find out that Roka had stayed with him the whole time, unwilling to leave him alone in that state. "Only saw it in a dream once," was all he offered.

Dawn was already spreading its orange glow over the sky when the two women made their way back, casually sitting in the bus, surrounded by countless colourful shopping bags and licking delicious ice cream. For probably the first time in over a century Roka felt completely content, her head pleasantly dizzy from the overload of sensual input from the city and all the innocent fun they just had.

"So..." Amy's voice cut through her thoughts, a bit calmer, now that she had powered herself out. "You've been here before, haven't you?"

Roka nodded, glaring at the cone in her hand. "I actually grew up here," she admitted.

"Whoa! What? Nooo way!" Amy exclaimed. "When? I mean... when were you born?"

"Second February of 1990."

The other woman's mouth dropped open. "Hey! Then you're a year younger than I! I mean... if you weren't older, but... whoa... that's confusing." Hastily she took another mouthful of ice cream, mulling over this newly gained fact. "Wait... then we practically were neighbours of some sort!"

"Not quite." Roka shook her head. "I've never been to your street, I think. But my parent's house is only one bus-stop from yours. I... ran away from there when I hit eighteen."

"Oh, that's why you were asking for the date before. You didn't want to run into yourself, right?" Suddenly she grinned widely. "Let's go there."

Roka's stomach dropped and she hastily shook her head. "No! That... I can't. They don't even remember me. And it's probably better that way."

"Why would it?" Amy asked back flabbergasted. "And shouldn't they remember, now that this glitch is gone?"

That actually was a good question. And both possible answers were daunting in their own way. But no... they probably would only remember if she would pop up there now and...

"What would I even tell them?" she asked breathy. "I left, because I couldn't stand thinking of explanations as to where I had been, over and over again. Each time my mom remembered, there was a fight."

"Okay, I think it really would be weird. But at least we could... peek inside a window? Don't you want to see them? Maybe just say goodbye, and if it's only in your mind."

In a way Roka had gained a whole new life. Perhaps it really wasn't a bad idea to bury some parts of her past together with the person she had been before her death. From now on she was free to become whomever she wanted to be, freed from everything that had ever bound her.

"Yeah. Let's do that," she agreed.

First they brought all of their purchases back to Amy, then walked the few streets to Roka's childhood home. By now it had gotten dark outside and a strange silence had spread between the two. Amy seemed to sense that Roka was nervous and left her alone with her thoughts. And those thoughts were racing like mad. She hadn't seen her mom and brother for... well... a rough 180 years. That surely wasn't a short time.

To make sure they wouldn't get noticed, Roka had given Amy one of her perception filters. She had built them a few days ago, because sometimes it still felt soothing to be invisible. Like that it was easier to adjust to the new situation. And now they proved to be useful.

In the darkness of the evening it was easy to peek inside the window, and Amy had happily volunteered when Roka hadn't quite been daring enough to take the first look.

"They are sitting on the sofa, watching TV," she reported in a husky tone.

Roka took a deep breath and nodded. It was weird standing in the front yard, spying on her own family. But all she wanted was to see that they were alright and happy, so she took together all her bravery and turned her head to...

Several seconds passed, Roka's mouth hanging open in disbelieve.

"Wh... what?" she breathed out eventually.

"Are you alright?" Amy asked, perfectly unaware of the situation. But she couldn't know.

There in the living room, on the old brown sofa, sat her mother, half asleep from the probably boring TV program. An arm was draped over her shoulders, a hand playing with her long, blond hair. It belonged to a man with tousled brown hair and eyes, a calm friendly face and a head full of stories for every occasion.

A man who had died years ago.

"D... do you see that man?" Roka asked, her voice way too high pitched.

"Uh, yeah. Is that your Dad?"

Roka nodded, then shook her head and nodded again, taking a confused step back. "That's not possible. He... died when I was ten."

Amy visibly paled, rushing back to the window to take another glance. "He's not a ghost. Are you sure your memory is correct?" And suddenly her face paled even more. "Wait... I think I heard the name of this street already."

Unsure what was so special about that - this place was small enough to easily know every corner - Roka watched numbly as Amy strode to the front door. Luckily not to ring the bell, but to bow down and take a glance at the name plate. If her face could have been any paler, it surely would have been when she returned and grabbed Roka's arm to drag her to the other side of the street to a set of bushes.

She swallowed hard and then flung her arms around Roka. "Oh gosh, I didn't know he was your brother!" she let out. "I'm so sorry."

"Huh? Wh... what are you talking about?" Roka pushed her away, now a little scared of what else might have changed.

"What I mean? It was such a big story back then. _The Blink_ and the dead people, and the missing boy of the Arkerson family."

"Tha... that's my last name. Amy... what the hell are you talking about?!" Roka demanded, almost screaming. "Josh never went _missing_!"

"You... how can you not know?"

Roka stepped back, shaking her head in disbelieve."Because it never happened!"

"Now now, that really is peculiar," came the Doctor's voice from behind, making both women whirl around. "Supremely fascinating, I might even say."

His face was filled with the usual childish determination that always gripped him, when a mystery was around. A bit behind the Doctor stood the Master, clearly sulking about something, or simply because he had been dragged here.

"What's that bit about _The Blink_?" the Doctor asked towards Amy.

"That was..." She shot a side glance at the still shocked Roka. "I think in 2006 or so. One summer evening all power went out. Completely. Not even emergency power worked. It only lasted for a couple of seconds though and no one was too suspicious about it. But the next day they found a handful of elderly people to be dead, all around the city, and with no determinable cause of death, beside their faces looking as if... they had seen something horrible. And the Arkerson boy.... sorry. Roka's brother... he was gone and never seen again."

"Impossible," Roka muttered. "In a few seconds? But... I should remember! I was there! _He_ was there!" She had left when he had been ten years old, but this disappearance had occurred when he had been eight. She shook her head and shot the Doctor a pleading look. "This never happened!"

"That screams _alien_, if you ask me," the Master grumbled. "Not that anyone would do that."

"My thought exactly," the other Time Lord seconded as he put a reassuring hand on Roka's shoulder. "It seems like some event rewrote a bit of history here. And you're too out of synch with your own time. It didn't affect your memory."

"B... but why..." she breathed shakily, "Then why is my dad still alive. He was ill. No time rewrite could have stopped that."

"Mhm, yeah. That is indeed peculiar. I don't know yet."

That moment everyone froze and they hastily vanished behind some bushes, when the front door opened. Mister Arkerson stepped out, hands thrust inside his pant pockets, only to get out a pack of smokes, of which he lit one, glaring with sad eyes into the night sky.

"You could... say hello," Amy almost whispered, but fell silent when she saw the tears in Roka's eyes.

It was so hard not to run over the street and jump into his arms. To tell him every little detail of her story, tell him, she was alive and well, remind him, that she was real, that he had a daughter, that they used to enjoy snow and hot chocolate and stories together, that he looked so similar to the Doctor's last incarnation, to tell him, that she loved him, that she had never forgotten him and the faint smell of cigarettes his clothes had when she had fallen asleep in his arms.

But she did nothing of those and only tried to swallow the hot tears that were trickling down her face. Because she wasn't allowed to remind him. Because it would mean to have lost _two_ children, instead of one. Because it would remind them both of all the things the glitch had taken from them. And which they would never get back.

Eventually Amy wrapped her arms around Roka and cradled her soothingly. She threw a glance at the two Time Lords, but the Doctor only looked as helpless as ever and the Master clearly was overchallenged as well, only reaching a hand out, just to hastily take it back, when Amy slightly shook her head. But at least they all seemed to understand why it would be unwise to make themselves noticeable right now, and stayed silent, until Mister Arkerson went back inside the house.

Ignoring Amy's look, the Master stepped forward and flopped his hand down on Roka's head, ruffling her hair a bit.

"Whoever did this will pay. I swear," he growled.

Roka swallowed and blinked upwards, perplex and unsure what to make of this. But the reassuringly grim look on his face somehow calmed her.

"What... do you mean?" she brought out, rubbing a sleeve over her eyes.

"Yeah, that I want to know too," the Doctor seconded, fidgeting around.

It was clear that the Master's patience was close to run out, but he left it with an eye-roll and an annoyed grunt. "What do you think? We'll investigate of course. Would be quite laughable if _we_ wouldn't find out anything. _Something_ altered time here. In a big scheme at that."

"But why would you help, finding out about it?" Amy raised a sceptic eyebrow.

The Master folded his arms and glanced down at Roka, ignoring the other woman and the now blabbering Time Lord behind him. A small smirk quirked the corner of his mouth. "Just being a little selfish. That's all."


	17. II - Unexpected methods

Roka hasted through the eerily empty corridors, her hands clutching a book and her eyes constantly twitching towards the watch on her wrist. This had taken way too loong, and now she wasn't sure whether or not she would make it to her destination in time.

Exactly ten seconds too late she slithered to a halt in front of the wooden door and lay her hand on the handle with a wildly hammering heart. From inside she could already hear the dreadful voice, knowing that it would soon be directed at her.

But there was no running away from this, so Roka carefully opened the door and snuck into the classroom, hoping to be able to unsuspiciously slide along the walls to her seat.

Of course it didn't work and a pair of icy blue eyes shot towards her immediately.

"Miss Arkerson!" Miss Tolzik's voice cut through the room. "Do you think you have special rights here? Or why is it you are the only one late?"

Roka shot straight and swallowed. "I... forgot my book. Had to get it and... and... I'm sorry," she stammered, slowly walking backwards to her seat.

Luckily enough the teacher seemed to forgive the few seconds delay and continued her boring Geography lesson in her usual, sleep-inducing voice. If only she would be as sharp while teaching as she was while scolding a student.

"You're lucky," Fiona whispered next to her. "She seems to be in a good mood."

Roka only nodded and gave the girl a small smile, while getting out her book and notepad. This lesson would surely prove to be as boring as the last one, so she took enough notes not to raise suspicions and scribbled random doodles on other papers for the rest of the time.

"Oh, I wish I could visit France once," Fiona said dreamily, while they headed to the cafeteria after the lesson. "Miss Tolzik's made it sound really beautiful, compared to our dull England."

"Mhm, it's a nice place," Roka remarked, without paying much attention.

"You've been there already!?"

"Uh... yeah. Once or twice." Or maybe a few times more often, but that she better kept to herself.

As soon as the two had gotten their meal, Anna and Marco from the parallel class joined their table, giving them a conspiratorial look while sliding closer.

"Hey, I've heard Mister Duncester left the school an hour ago," Marco started in a hushed voice. "Weird, if you ask me. He loved his job. And then so sudden!"

Fiona sighed, murdering a piece of carrot with her fork. "You always interpret too much into things. Maybe he simply got a better offer somewhere else."

"That's not all," Anna tossed in. "They already have a replacement."

"Would be bad if not," Roka said with a sarcastic undertone. "We'd miss all these _suuuper_ important lessons otherwise."

"Hey, not everyone is as smart as you," Fiona giggled and nudged her playfully. "Do you want your fries?"

"No, take them." She shoved the whole plate towards the girl. "I'm not hungry anyway."

Marco promptly reached into Roka's bag without asking and pulled out her timetable. "Good thing, you're new and still carry that thing around," he said nonchalantly and also stole a fry. "Hey, you'll have him in the last hour! Lucky bastards!"

"We'll see _how_ lucky we'll be with him," Fiona tossed in. "Maybe he's a total dick."

The bickering continued for the rest of their break. Roka tried to ignore them as good as possible. They made way too much noise, making her head starting to hurt slightly. She pinched her eyes and rubbed the lids to ease the pressure a little, but it didn't help much. Good thing this day would be over soon.

During history lesson Roka got out the paper she had gathered in the early morning, and that had been responsible for her being late. It contained a set of names from previous students of this school, some of the teachers that still worked here and the last names belonged to the two brothers that were currently more or less owning this school.

During this lesson she sat in the very back of the classroom, hidden behind an opened book. The teacher never paid much attention to what everyone was doing and only reeled off his subject. With her tablet Roka researched the names for a while, but couldn't find anything suspicious about the people behind them. Maybe a false lead?

Eventually the bell rang, giving them a short break before their final lesson this day. They had to change rooms and Roka found herself sitting with Fiona again, who told something that sounded excited, but probably was horribly boring. People at that age really had the weirdest problems, Roka had found out. Ranging from acne to teeny-bands, clothes-shopping and what was new in the cinemas. And boys of course. As if the world had nothing more important in stock than pimpled teenagers. But as long as she nodded and hummed here and there, Fiona seemed to be content and simply went on until the bell rang again, revealing the break to be over.

Promptly the door got opened and Roka remembered that they would have this new teacher now for their literature lesson. At least it was a subject that interested her a bit. Her hopes of this lesson being over soon popped like a soap bubble though, the moment he strolled in, wearing a completely black suit and a blood red tie, his hair almost white and the charming smile framed by a thin goatee.

"Morning, class!" he greeted with a politician's smile. "I'm Mister Termas, your new source of inspiration in the vast world of literature." He gave a bunch of gaping girls nearby a wink and proceeded with his endearing voice, "Let's see, what do they want you to learn? Ugh, boring." His eyes had fell on a small stack of papers on his desk that he was now casually crumbling to balls and throwing behind him. "Nah, that's for bloody idiots." Another paper landed on the ground as he glanced up. "You're no idiots, right?"

Roka sunk together in her chair, tempted to let out a frustrated groan. Next to her Fiona glared at Mister Termas before she nudged Roka slightly. "At least he's handsome."

Now Roka really groaned. This could only end in a disaster.

"Ha! I know! _Dante's Inferno_!" the teacher announced happily. "Nothing better than reading poetry about humans being tortured in a hell they created themselves, don't you think?"

The class threw questioning glances around and a murmuring rang through the rows for a few seconds.

"Oi! Silence, you brats!" Mister Termas shouted, his features annoyed. "Did no one taught you little apes some manners here?"

A boy in the last row raised his hand, and hastily blabbered, "We don't have that book here, Sir."

"Well, then get it until next time." The teacher waved the objection away and sat cross legged on his desk. "I don't care how. Steal it if you must. Rip it out of a dead man's hand and then read in what circle of hell you'd end up for it." He chuckled darkly and, for the first time, threw a quick glance in Roka's direction.

She only rolled her eyes.

A second later Fiona nudged her again, having a somewhat besotted smile on her face. "He's so cool," she whispered.

"If cool means horribly annoying, then maybe," she grumbled back and glared at the ceiling, hoping this might end up being a stupid dream.

"Is my lecture boring you?" the man in their front asked mockingly and picked up a paper from the desk to let his eyes skim over it. "Miss Arkerson, right?" He stood, sauntered over to their desk and put both hands on either side of it to be face to face with Roka. The snide look in his eyes was unbearable. "You think, you're smarter than I? Can you teach them something more interesting, eh?"

"So far you only taught us how to spit out big words." Roka folded her arms and held his stare with grim determination. And because she was in the mood to be sassy, her head hurt and she had absolutely not the slightest desire to be here at all, she continued, "And you're wrong about Dante. It's not at all about torture, it's about exploring the depths of human nature and the underlying moral aspects of it."

A mean grin widened on Mister Termas' face, his eyes boring into hers. The class around them was suddenly forgotten and all that counted was their little staring contest. Eventually though he straightened, clapped his hands and gave her his politician smile.

"I think you might want to consider seeing the head_master_," he suggested sardonically. "I heard, if you behave a little, you might not be kicked out of this school. But that's on _him_ to decide." With that he hurled around and strode back to his desk. "The rest of you... dismissed. Get that book for next lesson and... do whatever it is your species does at that age. I'm not even sure I want to know." He waited a little, but no one reacted, unsure whether or not his words had been a joke or not. "That's a command, you little brats! Out with you, before I set this room on fire."

Now they moved. Hastily everyone packed together their stuff and rushed towards the door. Roka and Fiona melted with the crowd, the girl tugging at her sleeve with a concerned look. "What was wrong with you?" she asked over the chatting students. "You're normally so calm and now you start a fight with a new teacher?"

Roka gnawed on her bottom lip and glanced to the side. "He annoyed me. That's all."

"Really. I didn't know you could have such a temper," the other girl giggled. "But then again, you're only here for a few days, so there's that. Hey, where are you going?"

"Home of course." They walked down one of the hallways.

"But you should see the headmaster. I don't think it's wise to ignore that. Could get you in quite the trouble. Come on." She smiled reassuringly. "He's not so bad. My Dad actually is friends with him, so I know him a little. Just apologize and I'm sure he'll turn a blind eye on the thing."

Roka sighed and rubbed her eyelids. These headaches were going to kill her soon. "You're right. See you tomorrow then."

She waved Fiona goodbye and strolled towards the office, not very eager to meet the man. How was she supposed to explain this? And how was she supposed to survive the remaining days? This was worse than being trapped with a species of cannibal-lizards, that's for sure.

Immediately after the Master had suggested that they'd investigate, the Doctor had run off, sonic in hand and eagerly scanning seemingly every inch around the house of Roka's family. The other Time Lord followed soon, doing the same with his tablet. Amy and Roka only exchanged dumbfounded glances.

"I think," Amy said carefully, "he can't stand seeing you cry."

Roka snivelled and once more ran her sleeve over her eyes, swallowing the remaining tears. Normally it was annoying how the Master behaved around her, but right now she was grateful for it. The whole situation had caught her completely off guard and still made no sense whatsoever. How could Josh be missing? And how could their father still be alive? Especially the latter was impossible, even though Roka's heart beat hurtfully, but in joy about the fact.

Once more Amy wrapped an arm around her, while watching the Time Lords doing their thing. For so long Roka had been alone that even this small gesture felt unfamiliar and... wrong. No, not wrong. Only painful. Because it reminded her of all the years where no one had been there to do even that. And now it was weird to suddenly be so aware of how she had missed such a simple thing as a hug. She also wasn't sure if it was even appropriate to lean into it a little and just enjoy the feeling of being held. The social rules of the human world often enough were still unreadable to her. But at least Amy didn't seem to mind.

The Master returned with a deep frown, glaring at his tablet as if he wanted to smash it into pieces. Behind him the Doctor was still busy, but also didn't look too pleased. When he returned as well shortly after, his face was plastered with a grin though.

"Something strange is going on here. That's for sure," he announced with the widest grin. "I can literally smell the adventure here." His eyes glinted eagerly in the darkness and he took a deep breath through his nose as if to sniff the air. "Let's head to the TARDIS and analyse the scans. Shall we?"

The girls nodded, while the Master didn't even seem to hear the Doctor's words. His eyes were glued to his screen the whole way back and he didn't give off a single utterance. Together with the Doctor he vanished for some hours, and when they returned, both wore the same expressions as before.

"Oh, this _blink_ was the alieniest alien thingy I ever saw!" the Doctor let out happily. "My readings are all totally whoooshy and weirdy and fascinating!"

"Can you talk like a normal person?" the Master moaned. "Just for a minute."

Roka shot up from the jump seat and approached the two. "What is it? What happened to my timeline?"

"Oh, to yours? Nothing at all," the Doctor spluttered out."All finey, perfectly. But this time on earth is a bit squiggly. Distorted and tattery. And there's traces all everywhere."

The Master let out another exasperated groan and pushed the other Time Lord aside. "Time got rewritten," he plainly stated. "And not gently. Someone or something enforced those changes with a technology that our sensors can't quite put together yet. But we could make out a point where all threads connect."

"Yes! The house of two brothers. Seem to be human, but who knows, right!" The grin was hardly appropriate for the situation, but when there was an adventure to have, the Doctor wasn't too good at being respectful. "They have hired some really nasty guards, so we can't get too close, but..."

"They seem to own a school here," the Master interrupted. "And in a few days there is this festival and they'll be there as well."

"The school?" Amy now also tossed in. "I never knew to whom it belonged. I thought it was property of the city."

"Oh it was!" The Doctor clapped his hands together. "Until one month before the _blink_."

"This is all too weird," Roka muttered.

"Well..." Amy's voice suddenly took on a tone that was clearly excited, but also a little mischievous. "Then the plan is clear!"

"Is it?" Roka asked dumbfounded and wasn't sure she really wanted to know.

"Of course!" the other woman winked and grinned widely. "We're going to infiltrate that school! Well, one of the upper classes at least. Like that we can get regularly into the festival and in the meantime we can ask around for rumours and research from the inside!"

The Master only raised a brow, while the Doctor seemed lost in his own thoughts for a few moments. But then his face lit up and he nodded enthusiastically. "Yes! That's a brilliant plan!"

"There's only one problem," Amy continued. "I used to attend this school. So they know me." With that she turned her head to Roka, her eyes twinkling. "But they've never seen _you_ there. And you're definitely young enough to pass as a student!"

"What?!" Roka backed off. "No, I'm not!"

"Aaaaw, come on. How old were you, when you got frozen? Seventeen?"

Roka coughed and squinted her eyes annoyed at Amy. "Twenty-four."

"No way!"

Finally the Master stepped in, pulling at Amy's sleeve to get her away a bit. "Shut it, matchstick. But the idea isn't too bad. Human kids are chatty as hell. And the Doctor and I can work in the back. I'll do some hypnosis on the staff, so they won't ask any questions."

"B... but..." Roka protested weakly, already guessing it would be in vain. Instead she folded her arms and pursed her lips in protest. "I don't want to go to school."

Roka raised her hand to knock on the headmaster's door, still uncertain if going there was even necessary. But then the handle clicked down and through the now open gap peeked out a grinning face she knew too well.

With a deep sigh, and rubbing her eyelids once more, she stemmed open the door and gruffly walked past the Master, then turned sharply on her heels to poke a finger at his chest. "Seriously?" she only said and shook her head. "Does the Doctor know you're miming a teacher here?"

"No. And he's not my babysitter." He shrugged nonchalantly and the grin on his face broadened as he sauntered towards the big wooden desk, where he placed himself inside the big leather chair, feet on the table and hands behind his head. "So... it came to my ears, you misbehaved, young lady."

"And you _convinced_ the headmaster to let you have his office?" Roka retorted sarcastically, not even considering to play this dumb game.

"Well... it's the _master's_ office. Of course it has to be mine." He chuckled to himself, then drawled on, "Did you find out anything about the people on my list?"

"Nothing noteworthy. Only got me into trouble. Have the three of you found anything? I'm really not eager to stay here until the festival." If she was going to survive this torture, it surely wouldn't be unscathed. Right now she even felt a little sick and dizzy.

"No." Finally he took down his hands and feet and stood to pace around the room. "We checked all the addresses of the diseased elderly people, but there was nothing to be found. Not even traces. Whatever scared them to death didn't leave anything permanent."

"Well, then there really is no need for me to stay here any longer," Roka decided.

"As a student you are part of the festival. You' have to get us all in, so we can get a hold of these brothers." The Master's grin was wide with amusement. "They are the most interesting part about all of this. The traces from your parents' house and the readings from around their property are identical."

"What? Really?"

"Mhmm... but we couldn't get in. So, you'll have to play your part here for a little while longer." He chuckled meanly, swung his legs from the desk and trod over to her. "Leading us back to the subject of you misbehaving, little crow."

"Stop calling me that," Roka grumbled through gritted teeth and backed off slightly as he wanted to mockingly tower above her. "And stop this stupid act. You're neither a teacher nor the actual headmaster."

"No, maybe not." He followed Roka slowly, until her back hit the wall and grinned down at her. "But I enjoy pretending to be in charge over a whole building full of little humans. And you... clearly deserve some detention for disobeying me."

Roka took a deep, annoyed breath, trying to ignore how he had put a hand at the wall next to her head and was leaning down, detesting every personal space she might have ever valued. The gleam in his eyes was nasty and he clearly wasn't up to something good. Not that Roka cared much. In fact... she still only felt sick, and the slight dizziness in her head got worse.

"I've got no time for this," she grumbled and tried to push him away.

"I don't care. You're trapped here with me." Suddenly his face got serious and the playful glint vanished from his eyes. "So you only have a single choice."

What in the universe was he planning now? Roka took slow and even breaths, trying to fight back the sickness in her stomach, tried to ignore the slight ringing in her ears, that was getting louder by the second. She really didn't need his stupid games right now.

"It's easy," he continued, his voice dangerously low. "I let you go. Right after you finally tell me what I've done to you. No excuses."

"You're an ashole," Roka ground out. "That's enough."

So suddenly that it made her jump, he rammed his hand back at the wall, and that with a force that made the wood crack slightly. "Tell me!" he growled. "Is it because I took your life? You know why I did that. I had no choice!"

Roka only shook her head, now happy about the securing wall in her back. Black spots started to dance before her eyes and the Master's words only partially reached her consciousness. This wasn't good. Dizzily she realized how he grabbed her collar to draw her closer, but without the wall her muscles didn't want to hold her any longer. Instinctively she grabbed after the Master's arm to hold herself, but her legs gave way and she sunk down against him.

Perplexed, but swiftly, he wrapped an arm around her torso, preventing Roka from falling.

"Hey, what's wrong with you?!" his slightly panicky voice rang through the thick, black fog in her head.

Then, suddenly, her feet left the ground and she felt arms at her back and under her knee pits. A reflex made her grab after his jacket. If only her muscles would do their job. Instead she completely sunk together at his chest, feeling cold sweat cover her skin and her whole body felt shaky. The Master carried her to a small sofa in the back of the room, his soothing doubled heartbeat hammering wildly against her ear.

He sat her down on the sofa and reached out a hand to feel her forehead. Already, but slowly the dizziness started to vanish a little, and Roka glanced up, trying to put a smile on her face. "I'm fine," she somehow brought out.

"Yeeeeah, collapsing like that is totally fine," he sneered, not able to completely banish the worry from his voice.

"Only a small circulation collapse," she mumbled weakly. "Just give me some sugar. Haven't eaten anything today."

The Master gaped at her for a moment as if she had slapped him, then sighed and shook his head, throwing another disbelieving glance down at her. "Seriously. You can barely take care of your basic needs. How could you survive for so long?"

A pained smile curved her lips. "Because I had to."

Because her life hadn't been in her own hands any longer. He had demanded it as payment for researching her glitch. And with that she hadn't been allowed to die on her own. It was stupid to cling to this promise, but it had been this thought that had kept her alive for all these years. And when she looked up she saw that he too understood this small truth all of a sudden.

Somewhat amused he began to grin and produced a chocolate bar from his jacket pocket, that he tossed at Roka. "There, suit yourself. But from now on you'll have to take better care of that life of yours. That's an order."

Roka picked up the bar and opened the paper with shaky hands. The Master didn't budge, and when she looked up, his eyes wore an expression she could impossibly name. Maybe he wanted to probe her further, demanding the answer he so desperately wanted and couldn't see on his own. But when he saw her pinching her eyes in pain, he dropped the subject.

"Doesn't taste?" he mocked.

She slightly shook her head. "Headache. I'm really not used to so many people. It's horribly exhausting."

After the chocolate was gone and another long look, the Master let himself down on his heels in front of her, his hands reaching for her head. Roka wasn't sure what he wanted there, but her mental barriers had become strong enough to keep him out of anything she wouldn't want him to see. So she didn't struggle, when his cool finger tips gently pressed against her temples. His eyes closed, and Roka observed his concentrated features.

Like back in his TARDIS, Roka once again marvelled at how calm he looked, almost as if he had finally found some peace in his mind. And even though he was acting like an idiot most of the time, he definitely had changed somewhat.

Surprised she noted how her heartbeat increased a little, wondering if that came from herself or from whatever he was doing with her. It confused her so much, she didn't even notice at first how her headache vanished slowly.

The Master opened his eyes again and eased the pressure to her temples a little, without taking his hands down. "Better?"

Roka nodded, remembering that he had done this before already. Not that he could get rid of those headaches for her, but he could manipulate her mind not to feel the pain anymore at least. "Yeah, a lot. Thank you."

Still he didn't take down his hands, still her heart raced and their eyes met for what felt like a small eternity. Anyone else might have thought there were no emotions at all in his gaze, but Roka saw beyond that, recognized the same deep sadness that had always been there, a sense of being lost and lonely.

His thumbs carefully dug into her temples once more, but this time he held eye contact with Roka. At first she felt nothing, but then, slowly, a weird sensation engulfed her. A strange warmth that wrapped itself around her entire being like an ethereal blanket, that flew through her mind and body, like a gentle embrace, washing away the icy coldness in her soul, holding her tight and secure. It was so overwhelming that she started to tremble, and tears shot into her eyes, that were still fixated on the Master. Her hands raised to encase his, but she couldn't bring herself to make him take them down, to make him stop letting her feel this warmth. Instead she clutched his wrists, eager to hold him in place, and at the same time utterly confused.

But then he let go, shook off her hands as if it was nothing and rose to his feet. The sensation vanished, making Roka let out a shaky breath and clutching herself to shield her from the pain of having lost it. Left was only and incredibly coldness inside her, so sharp and crushing that she thought for a moment she had to die.

"What... was that?" she breathed and glanced up, barely able to keep the tears away.

The Master's indefinable eyes rested on her, displaying something that could be regret. "Something I discovered when the drums vanished," he said calmly. "I think it had been there before, but I couldn't feel it then. I thought I was playing a game... but... I guess, I'm not the one who wrote the rules. And now I'm not able to get rid of it anymore."

"Get rid...? Why?" Roka dared to ask, not able to imagine why he would want to lose something that had felt so overwhelmingly good.

Another long look rested on her, before he slowly shook his head. "It hurts," he admitted. "One day it might even destroy me. I don't know." It seemed as if he wanted to say more, but the moment passed and he turned away, running a hand through his hair.

"Stupid me," he only mumbled and plainly walked out of the room, leaving a dumbfounded and entirely clueless Roka behind.


	18. II - Preparations

In English class Roka doodled onto her papers, head in hand and her mind somewhere else entirely. She hadn't found out anything important or interesting, but at least she had found a backdoor through which the others would be able to sneak into the festival hall. Most of the event would occur outside, with lots of snack booths, but for the students there would be a special dance towards the later hours.

That, at first, had excited the Doctor immensely, until Amy had told that this happened every year, and that there never had been anything interesting happening during these hours. Well... at least not in terms of alien activity, as she had told giggling.

For the rest of the previous day Roka had avoided the Master altogether, also the Doctor and Amy. Instead she had hung out with Fiona, who had dragged her through the city, blabbering on about what boys she fancied and what her family would be doing in summer. This girl was so talkative, it was almost refreshing, because she seldom asked anything and was satisfied with the simplest answers.

Time was ticking by slowly, determined to murder Roka with boredom. Maybe she really should attend a regular school though. With all the knowledge she had gathered over the last century she would come out with damn good grades. Not that she needed them for anything, but the thought was amusing nonetheless.

This time she decided not to skip lunch, but only sporadically engaged in conversations with the other students. All their topics seemed so shallow to her; insignificant and even outright stupid and hilarious. How could they all live like that? Oblivious about all the things out there and their minds only focused on short-lived pleasures without any meaning.

An annoying part inside her started to comprehend why the Master wasn't too fond of her species, and another one wondered what made the Doctor adore it so much.

The ringing of the bell announced the end of the school day and also tore Roka out of her gloomy thoughts. Not entirely though, her mind absent and tired and somehow always wandering back to that weird sensation the Master had shared with her. How could something like that come from someone like him? And how and why did he consider it bad?

All those musings prevented her from paying too much attention to anything at all, and eventually she found herself standing before the TARDIS, hand outstretched and ready to open the door. Only then did she halt and contemplated whether or not to actually enter.

She was divested of the choice by the Doctor, who happened to step out at that exact moment, as if he had planned for it. His eyes widened surprised, followed by his lips twitching into an adventurous smile.

"Aha! Perfect!" he announced, clapping his hands together. "Just who I was looking for." The smile, though, vanished abruptly and he coughed a little. "Sorry, it's actually not that much of a good news."

"What's wrong?" Roka asked and followed inside.

"Uh, well... how to put it." He clasped his hands behind his back, rocking on his heels, then straightening his bowtie. "I went back to your parents' house to check on a certain signal. Didn't find out anything new about it, but, eh, something else instead..."

Behind him the Master appeared in the console room, threw a quick glance at the two and stood still as if to contemplate if he should leave again. His eyes met with Roka's and she noted surprised and confused how he hastily looked away. Her heart did a weird little drop at that, making her completely oblivious to what the Doctor told her.

"....so, there's that," he blabbered on, unaware of the situation.

Roka slightly shook her head and glanced back at him, apologetically muttering, "Uh, sorry. Could you tell again? Was a bit absent."

"You're reported missing," the Master tossed in and stepped closer, not looking directly at her.

The Doctor nodded firmly. "Yeah... I happened to stumble over your father and..."

"What?!" Roka let out shocked. "No! You weren't supposed to remind him! Why did you..."

He held up his hands in front of him, trying to allay her. "It was an accident of some sort. I swear!"

"As if..."

"Nooooo! I mean... I had to ask!" the Doctor whined.

"Ask what?"

"If anyone here remembers you," the Master grumbled, still avoiding her gaze. "When he asked your Dad for his daughter, he only said, they don't have one."

"Then I hacked into the local police's files and found out there is a missing child report for you. When you were ten or so."

Roka sighed and rubbed her eyelids. "Yeah, makes sense. At that age the glitch got noticeably worse. Did he... remember after you asked?" She tried not to let the Doctor see how much the thought hurt her.

He shook his head. "No. I don' think so. Maybe... but he didn't say anything. Perhaps he doesn't want to remember..."

She sighed tiredly. "I hope he can't."

The last school day went by surprisingly fast. At least until the very last lecture, where the Master once again strolled in, a wide grin plastered onto his face. He really seemed to enjoy this little play. Today he even wore his reading glasses and did his best to seem very important. To everyone's demise he didn't even mention the book he had let everyone get. Instead he rambled on about some other classic literature. Preferably Poe.

And Roka got remembered that he actually was very well-read. Perhaps the only thing he enjoyed about earth, as he had admitted to her once, was human literature. So it was no wonder that the lecture ended with a slightly heated discussion between the two.

Eventually he propped both hands onto her desk, leaning forward with a mean grin. "Are we a bit sassy again, little Miss?"

"Oh, to you anytime," she threw back, an equally mean glint in her eyes.

It was her last day here, so she couldn't be bothered less about any consequences. And the Master knew too, of course. In the end they both simply enjoyed being the centre of attention. The ringing bell tore them out of it and they watched as the class left the room in a hurry.

"Do I have an audience with the head_master_ again now?" Roka asked, her voice laced with sarcasm. Then she swiftly snatched the glasses away and pushed them up her nose with an important face. "Wouldn't mind if he tells me, what exactly happened last time."

She had awaited him to play along and let out another bold comment, but instead his face dropped and he turned away to simply leave the room without throwing even a single glance back at her. This behaviour somehow let her think he regretted his impetuous action from the last time. Whatever it had been about.

Amy was pacing up and down the library, her mind wandering away again and again. Something was off, she knew it. The way everyone had observed her recently gave it away. And there also was the fact that she couldn't remember.

She had not the slightest idea what it was, but _something_ was missing.

Was it the same is with the Daleks? The Doctor had told her she was supposed to remember those. But exactly as with them, she wasn't able to bring back even the slightest memory of whatever else had been taken from her.

Why did no one simply tell her? Then at least she would know what it was about. Time Travel was dangerous, she had learned that already. And even when it had altered the way she remembered things, it clearly didn't completely prevent some memory losses. Nothing she was fond of, but also nothing that surprised her _too_ much.

So why were they creating such a mystery around it?

Amy let out a sigh and dropped down into one of the reading alcoves, grabbing one of the fluffy pillows to hold it tight. Right now she really wished she wouldn't be single. An actual boyfriend would be so much better than racing thoughts and pillows.

Her mind wandered to the Doctor and once more she noticed how she still felt drawn to him. Stupid of her, she knew it. He was so much older and an entirely different species after all. And maybe it really only was a mixture of being single for too long and the adrenalin of their adventures. But hell, a simple one night stand wouldn't hurt!

Okay, maybe it would. She giggled a little at the thought. He clearly wasn't the type for such things, and she could imagine, he wouldn't be able to ever again look her in the eyes after such a thing.

There was someone who clearly wouldn't mind, she recalled. Maybe she should try it with the Master, just to see how far he actually would go. Even though he was evil and an ashole most of the time, the danger he was radiating _was_ kinda exciting. She could somehow fathom how Roka had fallen for him.

But no. Things like these always ended in a bad way. Always. And Amy wasn't eager to ruin her friendship with the Doctor for some fun. And also not with her two hundred year old little sister.

Speaking of which, she should be coming back from her last school day soon. Maybe they could visit town and get something to wear for tomorrow. Roka noticeably had hated shopping in itself, but if they were going to a festival they should get something nice. It also would take Amy's mind off the memory thing. Or actually... well, she knew Roka's size...

With a satisfied smirk Roka let her school bag drop into the river, where it vanished with a loud splash, and got carried away by the stream. Never ever again would she visit such a building! At first, the thought of experiencing what she had missed out on in her youth had been tempting, but the excitement had vanished within the first horribly boring lesson. And the kids there certainly hadn't made it easier.

On some vague level she knew the Master had used a downgraded version of his former arch angel code to subtly alter everyone's memory at the school. Like that no one had asked any questions as to where she had come from, and about previews education, etc. But she wished he also had been able to program them to be less annoying.

Roka shook her head and glared down into the water, arms folded on the wood of the bridge. What weird thoughts. Humans weren't programmable like that after all. _She_ would have to learn to adjust to _them_. Not the other way around. If only she knew how. Her own species seemed so different and far away from her, as if they were a completely different kind.

But she couldn't just stick to aliens for the rest of her existence. Or could she? Nothing kept her on earth after all. This planet was as less of her home as anyplace else.

Well... if only she had her Vortex Manipulator.

Right now though there was something keeping her with the Doctor. The mystery as to where her brother had vanished wouldn't go unsolved, that she was sure of. And if she had to spend her entire life searching for an answer on her own. With the Doctor, though, chances were a lot higher. And even the Master was helping, whatever _his_ reasons might be.

Once more she shook her head and marched back to the TARDIS. Tomorrow they would find out more. If it would solve the puzzle or not she didn't even want to predict. But they would learn _something_, that for sure.

"Wake uuuuuuuuuuuup!"

Amy's cheery voice rang through Roka's sleepy mind and she groaned, turning away under her covers. But the noisy red head started to tap her shoulder now, so Roka rolled over and threw her what she hoped was a death inducing glare, instead of a horribly sleepy pout.

Well, who was she fooling?

"Up with you, Roka!" Amy cheered with a beaming face. "It's festival day!"

"So?" she moaned and sat up, blinking the sleep away. "If the Doctor didn't jump to this evening then there's still plenty of time."

"Yaaaaah, but we have things to do until then!"

"No, we don't. Let me sleep."

Amy stemmed her fists into her hips, looking down as if at an disobedient child. "Go, get a shower and however much coffee you need. Then meet me in my room, yeah? I've got something there." She winked mischievously, hurled around and left the room with light steps.

Roka flopped back onto her mattress with stretched out arms, part of her annoyed about the interrupted sleep, another part curious as to what in the world Amy had planned. It was more or less the only reason she didn't curl up under the blankets again, and instead did what Amy had demanded.

After the shower Roka squinted at her refection in the mirror. Due to her frozen time stream she had never changed at all. Sure, her hair had grown and there were some more scars here and there, but in the end it was the same face staring back at her than 150 years ago. Then her eyes wandered down a bit, to the round mark on her chest. It would be so easy to get rid of it, but she never had even contemplated it, always hoping the Master would find her eventually.

And when he had done so... all she could feel anymore was indifference and even hate.

Roka sighed and shook her head at her reflection.

"You're an idiot, you know that?" she asked, but the mirror refused her an answer.

What did it matter what happened so long ago? It was the past and had no meaning anymore. She should finally forgive and move on... properly. They both should.

Roka stuck out her tongue at the reflection and turned away to get some clothes, having no idea what to actually wear to such an occasion. After all they weren't really going to attend the festivities. There were more urgent matters at hand.

Amy ripped open her door when there was a knock, took a glance to either side and pulled Roka inside.

"There is such a huge wardrobe in here and all you ever wear are plaid shirts," she complained mockingly. "Well, that won't be an issue."

"What on earth are you even planning?" wanted Roka to know, sceptically eying a small chair and a bunch of scissors, a freshly installed mirror on the wall and a few plastic bags on the bed.

Amy chuckled and glanced down at Roka, draping an arm over her shoulders. This certainly would be fun.

"Well..." she begun, mirth on her face, "I think you need a little makeover."

Roka glared dumbfounded at her, and Amy was already about to work out all her reasons and how it would be fun, when Roka suddenly nodded, even looking somewhat relived.

"To be honest... that's exactly what I thought before. I might not age, but I change nonetheless." A mischievous glint sat in her eyes when she looked back up a Amy. "I'll never lose my love for plaid though."

Amy burst out laughing, from amusement about the comment, and also because she had already awaited exactly that. With a quick gesture and a wide grin she waved Roka over to sit on the small chair and got out a big cloth that she draped over Roka's front.

Snapping the scissors she trod behind her, smirking at their reflections. "A different haircut is a must," she insisted. "I'm admittedly not the best at this, but good enough. And I bet you cut them yourself anyway all the time, right?"

"Yup, was easier that way."

"Thought so." Amy wandered around her a bit, still unsure what would be most fitting. "Any preferences? They are long enough, I can do pretty much whatever you want."

"Mhm..." Roka pondered for a moment, then her face lit up and there was an actual smile tugging at the corner of her mouth. "You know... there's places where it's a real disadvantage to be a woman. And other where it's the other way around. Most of the time I had a pixie cut. Works for both genders."

"Hey, that actually would suit you well! Let's do that!" She hopped back behind Roka and started to clamp together some of her hair that she would leave be. After that she got out a hair cutter. "I'll leave it a bit fuffy? Or rather completely shaved down?"

"No, it looks dumb when they are too short."

Amy nodded and got down to work, carefully shaving off the sides. She had always cut her aunties hair and sometimes even... no, she had forgotten. There had been someone else, but she just couldn't remember. Then she noted the slightly worried look in Roka's eyes and smiled, turning off the hair cutter.

"Let's see," she cheered, ruffling through the remaining hair. "This will look a bit boyish, but that fits your character, I think." She chuckled a bit and leaned down. "Wait... you are a woman, right?"

Roka smacked Amy's arm and huffed amused. "Of course I am! Well... the Master didn't believe it at first back then. Not until he had convinced himself... err... I mean... forget it."

It took Amy a moment to get what this was about, but the realisation hit her fast after that. "Waaaait!" She almost dropped her scissors. "Don't tell me, you slept with that guy!"

Roka bit down on her lower lip, clearly unwilling to tell more, her cheeks suddenly a little flushed. Again and again her behaviour amused Amy. It certainly wasn't how she would have expected a two hundred year old person to act, and even with that knowledge it felt as if Roka were a lot younger than herself.

"So..." Amy grinned and started to bring Roka's hair in shape. "Is he good?"

"Wha... hey, don't ask that!"

"Why not?" Amy chuckled. "I'm curious how a Time Lord is in bed."

It was clear that she wouldn't get an answer, but the now glowing pink head of her little sister was amusing nonetheless.

"Okay, I won't ask anymore," she chuckled. "But say, I'm curious... when you were invisible, how did you handle that?"

"Handle what?" Roka scowled at the mirror.

"Sex, of course! You can't tell me, you went that long without." Amy stuck out her tongue at the once again blushing reflection.

"As if I'm telling you that," Roka grumbled and folded her arms under the cloth, sending a few hair snippets to the ground.

The red head rummaged around between a few bottles and contemplated which of these to use, when she remembered something. Or rather, someone having a little weak spot for gingers. With a mischievous grin she went back to the still sulking Roka and held a bottle in front of her face.

"What do you think? Red might suit you. And it would fit your temperament."

"Uh..." perplex she glared at the bottle, then turned her head upwards to face the other woman. "I never tried any colours," she admitted. "But if you think it'll work."

"I'm certain of it!" She beamed at the mirror, getting to work, and happy that Roka seemed to trust her enough to do this. After preparing everything she asked, "So... are there alien brothels?"

A sigh and an eye-roll were two very clear indicators that there was no answer to be awaited. But Amy only grinned widely at the mirror while applying the colour.

"We'll need to wait quite a bit, before this is done. So..."

Roka rolled her eyes again, but then finally spoke, "Yeah, there are, if you have to know. At least with species that have an equal reproduction method as humans. There's races that reproduce like fish... or only once every thousand years, some like plants and they..."

"Ever went into one?" Amy wanted to know. Not that a lecture about alien reproduction wasn't tempting, but this was too much fun for now.

"Seriously, Amy, why would I tell you?"

"Because you're making a way too big fuzz about the whole topic?" she offered happily. "Because everyone does it and it's no secret and nothing to be ashamed of?"

"Then maybe I'm just old-schooled." Roka scowled and crossed her arms in protest. "Do people really talk about this stuff so openly?"

Amy shrugged. "Not everyone. But come ooon. We all wouldn't exist without sex. So... ever went into one?"

A heavy sigh escaped Roka, before she nodded hesitantly. "It's not as if I could have formed some kind of connection to people with that glitch. I tried... but it doesn't work. Not at all." She shook her head and threw a quick glance at Amy's face in the mirror. "Not too often though. It just... I don't know... I don't get what the big deal is." She shrugged and looked away. "It's only annoying biology."

Now done with everything, Amy walked to the desk in front of the mirror and leaned against it, thumbs inside her jeans pockets. "Yeah, would be kinda convenient to be able to ignore it, like Time Lords."

"Humans can learn that too," Roka mumbled, somewhat absently.

"Sounds like you did."

"Mhm..." she nodded. "This might sound weird, Amy, but..." Gnawing on her bottom lip she glanced away.

"What is it?" Amy asked.

"You'd only laugh," Roka grumbled.

"Nooo! I won't!" she protested. "Tell me."

Roka sighed and still looked away, probably contemplating how to put it. "I think there's something broken with me," she finally told. "I mean... even without having control, it never was much on my mind. And I never... well... got much out of it." She shrugged. "Yeah, it's nice. But not... this world shattering thing people make it sound like."

Despite having promised not to, Amy started to laugh out loud. "Sorry, I'm not laughing about you," she giggled and tried to give her an apologetic smile.

"Then why do you?" Roka grumbled.

"Weeell... It's no wonder, you know. It wouldn't be the same to hold a random person's hand, or to kiss a complete stranger. Why would it be any different with more intimate acts?" And why did she even know that? Sure, Amy had been madly in love with one guy, but that wasn't what she was talking about right now. Again it felt as if there was something missing from her memory. Something important. But for now she ignored it with a slight head shake. "It's a different experience with a person you are truly close with. When you two share a... mhm... some kind of bond, you know?" _She_ shouldn't know. Where did those words come from? "Everything suddenly gets special, even the smallest things. A smile, watching the sunset, just standing close to each other..."

To her surprise Roka nodded and once again flushed a little, murmuring, "I know..."

Amy abstained from asking further questions, sensing that she would not get any more answers. She also was still confused and wondering where all this knowledge came from. It was as if she had felt these things before... and it hurt. What also hurt was to see in Roka's eyes that she, once, also had shared such a bond with someone - and Amy had a hunch, who that had been - but they had separated, lost each other. And this pain was more than anyone could ever bare.

More than Amy could bare, even though she had no idea where it came from.

"Say..." Roka nodded towards the plastic bags on the bed. "What's in those?"

"Oh, just a bunch of clothes to try on!" Happily she smiled at the bags and giggled when she saw the morose look on the face in front of her.


	19. II - The truth

Evening drew closer and the Doctor paced up and down in the console room, checking his pockets for about the thousandths time.

Sonic Screwdriver- check.

Psychic paper - check.

Snacks - check.

Well, there was too much in his pockets to make an actual list. But his fingers found everything his busy mind could imagine he might be needing for this adventure.

The two girls had gone ahead, using Roka's student access to get them into the closed off areas, where the brothers would be. Even though they hadn't been able to find out useful information about them, the Doctor was confident that he would get something, if only he could get close enough.

Time ticked by slowly, until the Doctor finally had enough and went outside on his own. Actually the Master had wanted to come along, but somehow he hadn't made an appearance this day. Unreliable as ever. The Doctor shook his head and strode into the masses of people that were enjoying the booths.

Nice smells hit his nose, distracting him for a few minutes, but at the end he made it to the destination building. It was a place they used for all sorts of festivals and important occasions. A wide hall was inside, leaving enough room for people to dance in the middle. There also were a few tables and stools and more booths to get drinks and food.

The Doctor let himself in through a side door Roka had previously opened from the inside for him. The place wasn't as interesting as he had hoped, even though he didn't have to pay for the food here and abruptly spent some time trying everything out that came into his reach. Humans really had some delicious stuff to spoil a Time Lord's gums!

"Finally here?" a grumpy voice next to him asked, making the Doctor spin around and face the Master.

"Oi! I waited for you for hours!" he protested, almost dropping some candy to the floor in the process. "Where have you been?"

The Master shrugged and looked somewhat displeased. No, more like he wasn't quite here in his head. "The Broulach brothers are upstairs," he only told. "I observed the people in here to see if anything is wrong with them, but so far it's just annoying teenagers."

"Well, let's have a talk with the brothers then," the Doctor suggested, getting out his sonic screwdriver. "Oh, hey! I see Amy!"

The Master turned towards the woman and noted that she wore a wide, blue blouse over a small black skirt. It suited her, no doubt. She was followed by another girl, and the Master had to narrow his eyes, suddenly doubting his eye-sight. That one looked familiar, but... no... no doubt.

It was Roka, dressed in black jeans, a white t-shirt and above it a thin green jacket with a bunch of buckles. Her hands covered with thin, brown gloves and draped around her neck was a wide, red plaid scarf. Speaking of red, her hair were cut and back to her old pixie cut again, only dyed in red this time, a bit more vibrant than Amy's colour. Somehow it made her look a tiny little bit punkish, but in a very suitable way.

The Master swallowed hard as the two women approached them, hardly able to tear his eyes off of Roka, and feeling silly for it. She didn't look that different after all. Just... enough.

"Heyyyyy!" Amy called out and waved a hand. "There you are! Oh my word! I can't remember when I've last been to something like this. I feel so young again!" She giggled and clutched Roka's arm. "I think I even found us some dates for tonight."

"Err... Amy..." The Doctor held up a finger. "We're not here for the festival. I hope you remember. The Master already located our targets, so we can go straight to work."

Roka stepped forward a little, shaking her head. "They are in a secured area. No access without a key. Guess you can sonic open the lock though," she said towards the Doctor. "But I couldn't find out if there are any alarms or so. If we aren't careful, they'll just get away."

The Doctor nodded thoughtfully, chin in hand. "Yeah, we don't want them to run off. Let's take some scans first around the area. Come, Master."

He impatiently tugged at the other Time Lord, and only now got aware of the little staring contest he and Roka held.

"What is it?" the girl asked, a smile tugging at the corner of her mouth, as if she knew the answer perfectly well.

The Master coughed slightly and shoved his hands inside his pant pockets. "You... look good," he just said, barely audible above the crowd.

"Amy helped a little," Roka told nonchalantly. "I needed some change."

"Change... I see..." The Master abruptly turned away and faced the Doctor. "Alright. Scans. Let's do that."

"And we two'll have some chats with the people here," Amy tossed in. "See if anything weird happens, or ever happened here. See ya, boys!"

With that she grabbed Roka's arm once more and together the two vanished into the masses of people. Amy decided not to mention the Master's reaction to Roka, even though it had been what she had hoped for. If they wanted or not, those two certainly needed to have at least a good talk one day. And Amy was good at bringing people together.

For a while they chatted with students, Roka mostly stayed in the back and made the appearance of not really enjoying so many people. They learned nothing of importance though. No one personally knew the brothers and no one had ever heard of anything weird happening inside this walls, or in the school.

"I'm going crazy," Amy complained eventually, slumping down in a chair and leaning her arms over the rest behind her. "How can there be not a single trace?" She sighed and eyed one of the booths that served drinks. Non-alcoholic ones of course, much to her discontent. Getting drunk with her new little sister definitely already sat on her list of things to do together.

Speaking of which, Roka hadn't uttered a single word for almost an hour. Now she sat on another chair, eyes darting around, but otherwise she made herself small and as invisible as possible. If Amy wouldn't know better, she'd say that girl suffered from some severe social anxiety.

"Hey, you're alright, Roka?" she asked smiling and nudged her a little. "Uncomfortable to be around so many people?"

Her eyes stopped moving and wandered to Amy's face. There was no actual fear, but a lot of discomfort in them. "Yeah. It's... uh... weird how they look at me." Once again she turned her head to study the people around, then glanced back. "They never did that before. And there definitely were more people around when we were in town recently."

Amy held a hand over her mouth to prevent herself from laughing out loud, then she playfully slapped Roka's arm. "It's because you look so good now, silly."

Her eyes widened surprised and a slight flush crept over her cheeks. "Tha... that's certainly not... you think so?" she stammered uncertain. "It feels weird. I'm not sure I like it."

"Well, I can turn you into an ugly little duck, if you want me to." Amy poked out her tongue teasingly and chuckled. "Don't worry. You'll get used to it."

"I hope so," Roka sighed and sunk together some more. "Let's have a look for the Doctor and see if the two found anything."

"Or we check out the two over there." She nodded towards a pair of boy standing nearby. Amy had observed them for a few minutes now and absolutely was in the mood for a good flirt. But when she got up and towards them, Roka didn't follow. "Oh, come on. This will be fun." Amy chuckled and took her hands to pull her up.

"No." Now Roka really looked uncomfortable. "I'm not doing that. No way."

"Why not? You're visible now, use it."

But the other woman only turned away, gnawing on her bottom lip, then she shook her head. "No," she only said once more and walked in the opposite direction.

Roka had done lots of things during her travels, many of which she surely would never mention to Amy. There also had been things... happening. Reasons for her to learn to fight and to favour being invisible. Humans... no... many species were cruel and violent in nature, and she learned fast how some _harmless_ fun could quickly turn into bad memories.

Not looking back or giving a damn about the other woman following her, Roka made her way to where they had agreed to meet with the Doctor. A light ache was beginning to pound in her head and she wanted to be out of here soon. Hopefully the two Time Lords had found something.

"Hey, wait!" Amy called out from behind and rushed passed her, turned around and held Roka's shoulders. "Did I say something wrong?"

"No, it's just..." She sighed and rubbed the bridge of her nose. "You wouldn't understand. You can still see things... without the shadows that are around them."

"I have so no idea what you mean." Amy chuckled and straightened.

"And I'm glad about that." Roka allowed herself a small smile. "You have to stay like this. It lights up my mood."

"Daaaaaaw!" the read-head squealed and flung her arms around Roka. "That was cute!"

Roka hugged her back, enjoying the little gesture and hoping, travelling with the Doctor would spare Amy from the really bad experiences. Those that would surely shatter this light hearted attitude and darken the light in this still young heart.

Her thoughts got interrupted all of a sudden and she pulled back. That was weird.

"Ugh... what the...?" she groaned and held her head. "Do you feel that too?"

"Eh... I don't feel anything strange," Amy pondered. "And certainly no headache."

"It doesn't hurt." Blinking a few times she looked back up and let her eyes wander over the dimly lit room. All the colourful lights were no help with discerning anything useful. "It feels as if something is pulling on my mind."

"Ahaaaa! Gotcha!" the Doctor happily called out from somewhere and hopped with wide steps towards them. "I couldn't find any other access. We'll have to use good old force," he told happily, waving his sonic. Then his face dropped a little. "What is with you?"

"Something's in her mind?" Amy tried to explain.

"No... not like that. It's..." Hastily Roka got out the tablet she had gotten from Chegg and started to swipe through a bunch of settings. "Doctor, I need a little help here."

He stepped closer and peeked over her shoulder at the device. "Ohooo! You can access your own brain with that, isn't that funny?" He chuckled. "I bet you can play Tetris in your own head with that thing. Or Pacman. I love Pacman."

"Doctor, focus," Roka moaned and handed him the tablet. "It would take me way too much time to do this myself. Something pulls on my mind. I think we can locate it with that... At least I hope so."

"Yeah... that might work. Could have needed that nifty little thing when you were..." He shot a quick glance at Amy, coughed slightly and added, "Okay, let's see. Should be done in..."

He didn't even need two minutes, before he jumped up and ran ahead, the two women in taw. Roka wondered if he had just been referring to that one weird incident where all of them had been mind controlled by some unknown being. But that wasn't important now. The pull got stronger with almost every step now, getting more and more unpleasant, up to the point of almost physical pain.

"Just a little longer," the Doctor assured. "We're close."

He lead them down a few stairs, sonicing open a bunch of doors that lead into a wide cellar complex of corridors and more doors. Eventually he halted in front of one that had a tiny window at its top. He and Roka raised to their toes and peeked into a big room that was filed with what looked like a few dozen computers, standing side by side, and blinking colourfully. Thousands of cables were draped all over the devices, connecting everything with everything else.

"Doctor," Amy hissed and grabbed his arm. "Someone's coming."

They spun around, now hearing footsteps approach. A nod later they hastened away and around a corner, pressing their backs to the cold stone wall. It were two people, judging by how many steps they counted.

"Seems like a good harvest, brother," one voice said satisfied.

"Yes. These humans never cease to surprise me."

After that they didn't speak another word and walked back to where they had come. All three let out a relieved sigh in their hideout and waited for a few minutes, before the Doctor finally made the first step and peeked around the corner, finding the corridor to be empty.

"They will hold a short speech in about an hour," Amy told whispering. "And then go and dine in the lounge. The students don't have access to there, but you can look inside the room then."

"Then let's come back later," Roka suggested, also almost whispering. "The pull stopped. I think they are done with whatever this was."

The Doctor also agreed, and, much more careful than before, they made their way back upstairs.

Roka was nervous. Time just wouldn't pass and she waited for this weird pull to start again, without anything ever happening. Amy had vanished into the crowd to do whatever, the Doctor busied himself plundering the booths.

Only then did she realize that there was someone missing. The Master had seemingly vanished, making Roka feel a mixture of annoyance and a little worry. It wasn't impossible that he had gotten into a trap, but it also was likely that he simply was minding his own business instead of helping.

Either way, she decided to look out for him, making her way through the crowded hall. Here and there people turned around and glanced her up and down. One boy gave her a friendly smile and a group of girls looked over as if she were some kind of threat. Roka really was glad not to have to visit this place ever again. Maybe this little style change had been a bad idea, she contemplated. Although she really liked how it made her look now. Like her old self in some ways, but with a new touch to it.

There he was! Black suit, red tie, blond hair. That could only be the Master. He was heading through one of the many doors that usually were locked. But when had that ever stopped a Time Lord?

Roka sped up her steps and slipped through the door before it could close behind her. It was only some kind of office room, with wooden floors and a few desks and cabinets. What caught her eye though was one particularly large wardrobe, that fitted the room, but stood in its middle, far from any place it might belong.

Right then the Master noticed her presence and spun around, visibly relaxing when he recognized who she was, but, strangely enough, tensing up again shortly after. His face got dark and his brows almost touched for a moment, then he wordlessly turned away and opened the wardrobe door.

"Oh, you brought your TARDIS here?" Roka asked carefully, unsure what to make of his behaviour.

For a second it seemed as if he simply wanted to vanish without a word, but then he closed the door, took a deep breath and turned around to her.

"It's certainly not the Doctor's," he said snappishly.

Her decision from the morning came to her mind. Letting the past rest and making peace with the situation. She certainly wasn't up for a fight and much more wanted to retain a casual mood. So she stepped a little closer, glancing up at him with, what she hoped was only a curious and not a really concerned face. "What's wrong? You act weird."

"Change..." he mumbled. "You're right. That might be a good idea." He looked down at her, his features trying to stay neutral, but something weird graced them here and there. "That's why I'm leaving. Just had to steal a few things from the Doctor first. Nothing important." He waved his words away and tried a smile, but failed.

"Leaving? Where to and how long?" Now she really got curious, deciding to ignore the other things.

The Master let out a short, sharp laugh and shook his head. "No idea where to. The universe is big. But I'm not coming back." He paused and pulled out something from his jacket pocket. "There. Do whatever you want." With that he handed Roka her Vortex Manipulator and once more opened the door, and was about to simply step in and probably vanish without any further explanation.

Quickly and still a bit perplex Roka grabbed his arm to hold him back. "What?! Just like that?"

It shouldn't surprise her, it really shouldn't. Running away like that... it suited him. And it seemed as if he was determined in his plans, roughly tearing his arm away.

"Yah, just like that. What does it bother _you_?" A short pause stretched between them, before he finally turned to her, a long dark look wandering over her new appearance. "But since you're here... before I go, tell me."

"Tell you what?"

"What it is I did to you. Don't say I should know!" he angrily added, clenching his hands to fists. "I have no idea. No matter how much I think about it. It makes no sense! And it's not fair!" He stabbed a finger at her.

Roka hit his hand away, throwing a mean glance up at him. "You know... I was just about to forget about it all. Let it rest and move on. Can't we just..."

"No! I want you to tell me," he growled and grabbed her shoulders, ignoring her struggles. "It's my bloody right to know!"

Roka tried to get free, but all her training still hadn't been enough against his inhuman strength. The harder she fought, the harder he gripped her.

"Why is it so hard to get behind?!" she protested angrily, suddenly feeling tears welling up from this old wound that had never healed. "You abandoned me!"

Abruptly the Master let go of her and Roka stumbled away a step, hurling around with still brooding emotions. He opened his mouth and closed it again, then shook his head.

"What are you talking about? I never..."

"No?" A mean and hurt grin curved her lips that, however, vanished with every word. "Well, of course you wouldn't know... Did it never occur to you... did you even think for a single second about _me_, when your bloody revenge was so _fucking important_?!" she almost yelled. "You just left! You walked right into _your certain death_! You knew what was waiting at the end of the time war! You knew you would never come back and it _didn't bother_ you!"

A shaky breath made her tremble and angrily she wiped a sleeve over her eyes. "And you really have the balls to ask what you did," she ground out through gritted teeth.

Silence stretched between them, the Master stared down at her with unblinking eyes. Then, from one moment to the next, he suddenly burst out laughing so loud it made her jump. The laugh was humourless and almost cruel in nature, lasting for just a tiny bit too long to be entirely natural.

"What are you stupid!" he finally brought out, still grinning nastily.

Roka swallowed her tears, not sure if they stemmed from memories or her current ire. "See? And there you wonder about my behaviour. You damn, selfish bastard."

"No... I'm not making fun of you, idiot." His grin dropped and he stepped in front of her, so close she could feel the warmth emanating from his body. Any remnant of a smile had left his face as he bent down to glare into her eyes with a clarity she wasn't used from him. "You got something very, very wrong here. It never was about revenge, although it was quite satisfying to see Rassilon suffer for a bit."

"And you really think I'm buying that?" Roka hissed.

"Yes, I do." Fast as a lightning bolt his hands grabbed her head, thumbs pressed hurtfully against her temples. "I'm not going to leave you any choice."

"What are you... doing?!" She almost doubled from the sudden pain, struggling against the grip. "Let go! I don't want you in my head!"

"Good. I'm not going there."

A strange sensation cursed through her. It wasn't the first time the Master was messing with her mind, but when it had been an unpleasant tingling sensation all the times before, it now felt as if she was slowly losing consciousness, as if her mind would get sucked out of her body and...

There was blackness, deep and impenetrable, thick as a blanket and too heavy to move a muscle. The only thing she could hear was a faint heartbeat. Two of them.

No... calling from the depths of time came not the beating of a Time Lord's heart. The sound was too foreign, too far away. It were...

_Drums..._

_Du, du, du, du..._

_Du, du, du, du..._

_Du, du, du, du..._

_A rhythm of four drum beats, repeating over and over again, getting louder and louder until there was no space in his mind anymore. No other thoughts could exist next to them, nothing but blackness and the painful, never ending drums._

_He could hear his voice shouting. "One... two... three... four..." The countdown of the drums, the pull from the time corridor. He was too close. Some vague and distant thought allowed him to realize it._

_It didn't matter anymore._

_The drums would never stop._

_The Doctor had broken the link, but the drums had stayed with him, louder than ever before, unwilling to stop, tearing at his mind, ripping it apart, slowly, painfully. With every beat he felt his sanity slipping, felt how he drowned, his ability to stay clear forever lost. And if it weren't for the drumming it would be his broken body, shredded from the botched resurrection. It hurt. It burned. He could feel how he was now rapidly falling apart because he had used up too much of the little life force he had been able to gather._

_Pain and drums and drums and pain, blackness and noise and voices and screams and tears and blood and madness and... light. A white light, tearing, screeching, crying out and pulling at him, pounding, ripping, dying. Too late. Too loud. And still alive. Somehow still breathing, thinking, feeling, hearing._

_Hearing the never ending torment of the drums._

_He screamed, he cried, he begged for his own death and didn't even know who, couldn't see, couldn't think, couldn't smell or hear or feel. There were only the drums and the drums alone and they wouldn't stop and he was still alive, and still begging, and still hurting._

_And they wouldn't let him die!_

_One... two... three... four..._

_One... two... three... four..._

_One... two... three... four..._

_......................................................_

_Silence._

_He screamed. Louder than ever before in his entire long life, couldn't stop until someone came to put something over his mouth. They fixated his limbs and his torso to prevent him from moving or even as much as whimpering. Hot burning tears ran down the sides of his face, dripped on cold plastic below him._

_They left._

_They dared to leave him there. In the darkness. With the unbearable silence._

_It hurt. It was cold. Empty._

_They came back, loosened the muzzle and immediately he screamed again as if in panic, and he was! This was wrong! It was not right like this! How could it be so quiet?! What had they done to him? He wasn't even sure if it were words he was screaming, he only wanted to make noise, so he could hear _something_._

_This time they let him, until his throat hurt and he finally realized he could actually move his body. Frantically he thrashed around, lashed out at anyone who could stand nearby, but no one was here in this bare, white room with him. He crashed to the ground, crawled backwards until his back hit a wall and he hunched over there, buried his head under his arms and rocked back and forth, tapping his fingers on his head, so hard that it hurt. But at least it wasn't so quiet anymore._

_Every perception of time left him, even though it should be impossible. Only this little fact made him realize where he was. A prison cell. Cut off from the outside, from time. They had brought him here, had somehow... yeah... now he could feel it. His body wasn't burning anymore. Somehow it was fixed._

_And the silence._

_The unbearable silence in his head..._

_The drums were gone..._

Blackness engulfed the scene, all images and impressions faded away, got replaced by muffled modern music from earth and a room with wooden floors and desks. Roka remembered who and where she was, her senses slowly returning, the memories, that weren't hers, finally fading and leaving her shook and tired.

For a while she didn't even feel her temples slightly hurting, but it came back and she glanced up, not realizing the tears on her face until she looked into the Master's eyes. They were so sad and so much lonelier even. And warm. How could these eyes be so warm, she wondered.

Finally his hands left her temples and she stumbled backwards, but caught herself in time before she could drop to the floor. Roka swallowed hard and managed to look up once more.

"I'm sorry," she breathed, and really meant it, not able to bring out anything else at the moment.

"It's okay." The Master smiled slightly. "You couldn't know. But it would have helped, had you told me earlier."

She only nodded, feeling stupid all of a sudden. If only she hadn't been so stubborn... But it had hurt so much. It had been what she had clung to all the years. And now it was gone, leaving her empty and without any words.

The Master trod close, took her face into his hands and smiled down at her. "I know this won't make you forgive me entirely. But it was still great to see you again. I don't regret having lost a few years searching for you."

Roka swallowed and even managed to smile back. "Go and find a new hobby," she mocked breathy. "You're totally obsessed with me. That's not healthy." She stepped back and out of his grip. "The glitch is gone. There's nothing special about me anymore." Her hand waved towards the door. "If you need a human pet, there's some billions of them. Why focus on me?"

His eyebrows raised slightly and his arms folded over his chest as he shook his head. "Since when do I like humans?" He stuck out his tongue and grinned. "Especially not those worms out there." A slight chuckle escaped him as he bent down slightly to her, an almost mad gleam in his eyes now. "You don't see what's in yourself, little crow. But I do. There is a mind that can see without judging, that is able to still glimpse the beauty of the universe even though you grew old and have witnessed maybe _too_ much already. There is still the urge to experience more, to learn and to stare at all the wonders ahead." He poked a finger at her, a smile curving his lips as the words continued to bubble out of him. "That's what I saw so long ago, that's why I allowed you to stay with me, to follow and to be my shadow. That's the reason I loved you and still do."

Perplex Roka blinked at him, their eyes locked and both slowly realized what exactly he had just said. The Master shot straight, every smile dropping from his face.

"Ehm... forget that last part. Was rambling nonsense," he muttered and folded his arms, glancing away.

Roka took a few more seconds, her mind racing and an uncomfortable chill running down her spine. It wasn't as if she hadn't suspected it, but rather had hoped that he had moved on as much as she had. And even if not... before this day he had always denied to be even _able_ to feel such a thing.

And now it scared her. Because she had no idea what to do, which in return made her angry once more. At him, at herself, at plainly everything. It wasn't fair what had happened to them and also not that she was now the one who had to fix this?

No. Certainly not. It wasn't her problem that he had come back, that he had literally kidnapped her and all that.

"Yeah," she finally said and waited until he looked down at her. "I think it's better you leave."

With that she rushed past him, out of the door into the noisy crowd and slammed the door shut behind her. The loud sounds of the hall drowned out the thoughts in her head. For a bit at least.

A glimpse at a nearby clock told her that roughly ten minutes were left until the brothers would hold their speech. She ran a hand over her face and tried to calm down her brooding emotions, feeling that she was in desperate need of a break from everything.

But the past couldn't matter anymore. This morning she had decided to move on and now she would, so she could focus entirely on finding her brother. Who else could do that after all? And if the Master wanted to leave anyway, then it wasn't her problem.

"Oh, there you are! I already thought we wouldn't find you in time!" Amy called put and ran over, the Doctor in taw. "Whoa, what happened to you? Was it the pulling again?"

"The...? Oh. No... no, it wasn't." Roka shook her head, remembering what Amy was referring to. All of it felt like it had happened an eternity ago.

"My, but you look as if you had seen a ghost," the Doctor remarked. "Are there ghosts here? I would love to finally meet one. You know, once I really thought I..."

"Doctor, we don't have time for that," Amy interrupted his emerging story. "Basement. Now! Come, you two."

They headed to the stairs, careful not to be too suspicious, but no matter how much Roka tried it, she couldn't focus on the task ahead. After what felt like an hour Amy nudged her into the side, making her jump a little in surprise.

"Seriously, what's wrong?"

Roka glanced at the clock. Two minutes were left. Then she looked at Amy and suddenly all the emotions she had tried to stash away came back up. She had to swallow hard and the words simply spluttered out of her.

"I just was with the Master. And... gosh, I said some really stupid stuff. It... doesn't matter, really. This is far more important."

"But it seems to bother you a lot."

Roka gnawed on her bottom lip and nodded. "Yeah, I think I was an idiot. Probably the biggest idiot ever."

She sighed deeply and felt a sting in her chest. And then it hit her. This weird sensation the Master had shared with her some days ago. And now his words... what he had made her feel in the office. With a shock Roka realized why it hurt him so much, why he had decided to leave, before it could break him. Like it had happened to herself.

"Shit, I think I just made a huge mistake," she muttered.

Amy chuckled. "Then maybe you should apologize. Wouldn't hurt you."

"If only I could... But it's too late now. He left. For good."

"What?" the Doctor called out. "Just like that? That's unusual. Are you sure?"

The hurt expression on the Master's face when she had moved past him was answer enough. If there had ever been a chance to convince him to stay, it would have been then. But she had bolted. And now she realized that it hurt, that she was forcing him to experience the same pain that had ripped her to pieces.

"I don't want that," she brought out and groaned. "Why do I have to be so stupid?"

"Then what are you waiting for? Run back and tell him to stay!" Amy encouraged.

"But..." Roka nodded to the cellar, a glance at the clock telling her it was about time to go down.

The Doctor stepped in and put a hand on her shoulder. "We'll handle this."

"Yeah, that's what friends are for after all," Amy seconded. "Hush, hurry! I bet, he's still here and waiting."

"Wouldn't surprise me," the Doctor nodded, then took Amy's hand and tore her down the stairs.

Roka spun around on her heels and ran back to the door as fast as she could. The two of them were right. She had to at least try to convince him to stay. He probably was still about to steal stuff and maybe play some last prank on the entire building or something the like.

A sharp pain went through her heart all of a sudden. Not physically, but an old memory resurfaced. Of that day where she had begged a TARDIS to bring her back to earth, where she had rushed through the Naismith mansion, frantically searching and looking until she had found the Doctor there, and Wilfred... but not the Master. Because he was gone. And she had been too late. In the end it might have been necessary. If he hadn't been sucked into the time lock, the Time Lords wouldn't have fixed his body and the drums.

But it still hurt to think about this moment.

This moment when she had rushed into the room, her eyes frantically searching for the misplaced wardrobe and the Master, begging every god and devil in the universe he might still be here, so the past wouldn't repeat, so she wouldn't be too late again. Her eyes searched the room and slowly filled with hot tears that she blinked away to see clearly. She turned around herself, trying to remember where exactly the TARDIS had stood, unwilling to accept the one simple truth that cut through her heart like a glowing knife.

The Master was gone.


	20. II - The chase

Roka kicked the nearest desk and let out a small frustrated cry. From the very first moment they had met again she had acted like a total idiot. And now he was gone. For good.

It didn't hurt as much as the last time, simply because she at least knew he was still alive. But she also knew they would probably never meet again anyway. The Master would do his best to stay away, probably even using the link on her chest to avoid her.

For a quick, desperate second she thought about destroying it. That wasn't too difficult, although it would require a great deal of self harm. But even then it was nearly impossible that they would run into each other ever again. Not when what they were running through was all of time and space...

Right now though there were more urgent things at hand, things she still might be able to change. Things to distract her mind from giving in to the pain. So Roka rushed outside and to the basement to meet the Doctor and Amy. Only a few minutes had passed, they might still be down there. The two brothers stood on a small podium right now, talking some nonsense about the school, but she didn't listen at all.

Down in the basement she found the door to be open and slid inside.

"It's me," she said not too loudly.

Shortly after the two appeared from behind some machine and the Doctor continued to sonic everything, while Amy came over.

"Oh no. It's written all over your face. He's gone, isn't he?"

Roka nodded and swallowed. "It's... probably better that way. Let's focus on the current problem."

There wasn't much the two of them could do though. The only thing was to watch the Doctor fidgeting around, rambling some tech-nonsense and theories and here and there snippets of stories that fell into his mouth, but never got finished. Finally he glared at his Sonic Screwdriver and shook his head.

"It's a storage," he announced. "Not quite sure for what... dreams, memories? Only thoughts? It makes no sense. Nonsense! Why would they need that? And why does no one... oh!" The Doctor spun around and grabbed Roka's arm. "Your brain bots! That's what you felt! That's why the others don't! Brilliant, isn't it?!"

"Err... I have not the slightest idea what you mean," she admitted.

He chuckled a bit an gave her an adventurous wink. "Give me your tablet. I'll show you, and then we're going to get them! Haha!"

She did and watched as he pulled out a bunch of data that he now pointed at. "See?" he asked with a grin. "Your little augmentation caught the signal and got a little overloaded, I think. Nothing bad, not damaged. But you felt it."

"Okay... but what signal?" Amy asked and bent over to also look at the tablet.

"Not sure yet," the Doctor plainly said. "It's sending something, or maybe receiving? Either way, it's _there_ and we can track the source! Because these," he waved a hand at the machines, "are only the destination. It's the end point. But not where it starts."

They nodded at each other and headed outside, the Doctor held the tablet up to follow the trace, lead them out of the basement and, surprisingly, back into the crowd and towards the separated dining area.

"No entrance," a tall man in a black suit said, holding a hand up when they approached.

Quickly the Doctor produced his psychic paper and held it up. "I'm the exception. Dining area check. Very important. Let us in."

"Alright, you can enter," the guard said uncomfortably and eyed Roka and Amy. "But these two are clearly students. They'll stay outside."

"Well, it'll do." The Doctor smiled and gave the two women a wink, before he entered the room.

Outside Amy dragged Roka away from the guard, a slightly mischievous smirk on her face, even though they had been separated. She was heading towards a bunch of doors with signs for staff only.

"The Doctor's not the only one who can get into locks," she chuckled and glanced around to make sure no one was around. Then she leaned her back against the door and pushed it slightly open, slipping inside and dragging the perplex Roka along.

"Wasn't it locked?" she asked confused.

"Oh, sure. But I met Mels before and I asked her to open it for me. Just in case."

"Who's Mels?" Roka remembered having heard that name before, but wasn't sure to whom it belonged.

"A good friend of mine. She basically lives with me from time to time. And she's a bit on the... wild side of life, you could say." She chuckled again and glanced around.

The door had lead them to a short, white corridor that would bring them right into the kitchen. And from there they could get back with the Doctor. There was staff around and they had to hide and wait a few times, making Roka wish once again for her invisibility to be back. She remembered her perception filters though and handed one to Amy, so they could move a little bit more freely.

The kitchen was almost void of staff. Only a handful of people were busy preparing meals. And right as they reached the doors to the dining area they could hear something shatter. They ran to the doors and flung them open, running into a bizarre scene.

There stood the Doctor, a happy smile on his face, and opposite to him the two brothers, one with a chair in hand, as if he wanted to throw it, or probably use it as some kind of shield. The eyes of the two were now glowing in a bright blue colour and as one spoke, his voice was a bit too deep to be that of a human.

"How do you know what we are?" he demanded and held up the chair.

"Oh, I actually have no... or wait..." The Doctor rubbed his chin in contemplation, then held up his finger with a happy face. "You are Afajexi, right? Feeding on the life force of other species. I heard of you guys."

The aliens threw glances at each other. "No, we are not. Let us go!"

"We mean no harm," the other seconded, his voice also a bit too deep, and his face displaying fear.

"Neither do I," the Time Lord assured, raising both hands. "But I can't let you feast on these humans."

"Doctor!" Amy called out, running towards him.

Now everyone realized her presence though and the brothers used the distraction. The one holding the chair, threw it forcefully after the Doctor, who barely managed to duck away. The distraction was enough though to let them bolt. With wide steps and faster than a human would be able to, they raced towards the doors, crushing them open and running into the crowd, never separating.

"Oh, ooow!" the Doctor complained, rubbing his arm, where the chair had hit him, even thought it had only been a glancing blow. "Come, after them!"

They all started to run, following into the crowd, careful not to lose the aliens out of sight, but they were too fast and managed to vanish a few times. Only the good sight of the Doctor assured the continuation of the chase, and finally they rushed outside the building and into the blackened night.

"There!" Amy called out, pointing towards a patch of trees and other foliage.

They had a good head start, but the Doctor was fast too, his human companions barely able to follow. Roka was a little bit faster, being used to wild chases, but she couldn't match a Time Lord's speed.

Here and there he held out his sonic, zapping barriers and gates and simply everything that he could close, to slow down the brothers, but they slowed only a little, now heading towards an old, abandoned rail station building. As soon as they got in they were out of sight.

"Dammit!" Amy let out, panting heavily and slithering to a halt behind the Doctor. "What now?"

There was no time to contemplate though, as a sharp scream pieced the night. All three shot straight, still panting, but alerted. It had come from inside the overgrown building, so the brothers might still be there.

"In!" Roka demanded and ran ahead, not waiting for the others to follow.

The old doors were rusty and many were completely broken out of their hinges. Roka slipped inside the darkness, pulling her tiny flashlight out of her pocket on the way and shining it around.

With a sharp inhale she slithered to a halt, jolting backwards so fast she almost fell.

"Whoa, whoa, what is it?" the Doctor's voice came from behind her, but then he also whistled surprised. "Oh my, that's a long way down."

Most of the floor in front of them had crumbled and was completely broken and caved in. Plants and moss covered the ground, but could barely hold together the bridle old concrete around. From here they could glance into what probably had been the lower levels of the rail station once. There even were some underground tracks where a subway had been planned, but abandoned a long time ago.

A low moan came from the darkness below.

"I think they fell," Roka mumbled and let herself onto her heels. "Good... sounded like at least one of them is hurt. Now they can't flee anymore."

The Doctor stared at her for a second, then shook his head. "It's never good when someone is hurt, Roka. You used to know that."

She bit her lip and turned away. "Yeah... But they have Josh. And I want answers."

"Heeey!" he called down. "Are you hurt? Promise not to fight and we'll help you get up."

There was no answer for a good minute, then one man spoke. "Michail is hurt. Please... we'll answer all your questions. But please... save him!"

"Alright. Hang on. I'm back in a minute!"

With that the Doctor spun away and searched the area. Not long and he came back with a long and heavy metal chain, that he wound around a pillar.

"You two stay here. I get them back up," he announced and started to swiftly climb down the chain into the darkness.

"I hope they won't harm him," Amy said concerned.

"He knows how to defend himself."

Not much time passed and there was movement on the chain. Shortly after they saw the Doctor climb back up, carrying one of the aliens on his back, tied with a rope so he couldn't fall. They safely made it back up and the second alien followed close. Roka shot him a venomous glare, eager to demand answers. But she knew, with the Doctor around, she would get them anyway, so she kept patient.

"Ah, hit his head quite a bit. But nothing bad there, just unconscious. Aaaand a broken leg," he explained when he was done sonicing the hurt brother. "I can tend to him in my TARDIS. But we want answers in return."

"Y... yes, alright." The voice of the second brother sounded human again and also compliant. It was clear that he wasn't going to let his sibling stay harmed.

The Doctor only nodded, nudged Roka, so she stopped scowling, and together they made their way back to where the TARDIS was parked. It was a march filled with heavy silence and the alien never made a single attempt to flee or to harm any of them. Quite in opposite did he let his head hang low and over and over again threw worried glances at the other one on the Doctor's back.

Finally they reached the time machine and marched inside. Only then did the alien speak up.

"I heard of these," he uttered astonished. "It's really bigger on the inside." Quickly he glanced at the Doctor. "But I thought all Time Lords were..."

"Yeah... they are." He smiled sadly and lead them to the med bay where he lay down the unconscious brother onto one of the beds. "I'm the last one. Well... almost. There's two of us."

A sharp sting went through Roka's chest at these words. Right now she really didn't want to think about the Master. And she still wanted answers, making her impatiently wait for the Doctor to finish, bandaging a broken leg and infusing the alien with something that would probably speed up his healing or whatever.

"I was wrong. You two are klabraks, right?"

The other one nodded.

"Ha! That makes sense. You are always born in pairs and it's highly unlikely for siblings to ever separate, right?" Another nod. "Your planet doesn't contain much dense matter, so your diet consists mostly of energy. Which leads me to quite a bunch of questions..."

"Why have you kidnapped my little brother?" Roka suddenly demanded to know, running out of patience with the Doctor's ramblings. "And you better tell, because I'm not even half as nice as he is." She pointed at the Time Lord.

"K... kidnap?" The alien trod back a step and raised his hands slightly. "No, wait. We've never done that. We wouldn't."

"Slow, Roka," the Doctor said calmly, laying a hand on her shoulder.

"Don't tell me what to do!" she hissed back, jolting her shoulder away. "I want to know where Josh is. Now!"

"You hear her," the Time Lord next to her said with a smile. "What are you two doing on earth? And why in a school? What are those machines and is there any connection to a missed boy in this town? Oh and... do you want some tea?" He smiled widely, gesturing towards a door.

"Eh... what?" The remaining brother blinked dumbfounded and threw an anxious glance down at Roka, then a few more at Amy and the Doctor, before he hesitantly nodded. "I'll answer absolutely everything. Just don't harm Michail. He's all I got."

"Good, good." The Doctor rubbed his hands and waved the man to the other door, leading them into the kitchen, where he brewed some tea for them all.

Meanwhile Roka observed the man, having the sudden feeling that she might not get the answers she was hoping for from him. He avoided her gaze and kneaded his hands until the Doctor reached cups with steaming tea to everyone.

"Do you have a name?" Amy asked eventually.

The man nodded. "Steppan. I... we... came from another planet, as you know. One day there was this crack... just hanging in the air and one day it opened and Michail and I were only boys and curious. So we went through it, but it closed behind us and stranded us here..."

"Oh no... not another one," Amy groaned. "How many of those bloody things are there?"

"I wish I knew," the Doctor sighed and blew at his tea. To Steppan he said, "We already encountered a bunch of these. Some lead to other places, some simply suck in all of reality around them. I think there is an explosion happening, somewhere in time. But... no idea how and when."

Silently Roka took a small sip from her tea, feeling some calm spread together with the warmth in her veins. She decided to listen for now.

"We didn't know how to sustain ourselves," Steppan continued, his eyes glued to his feet as if ashamed about their actions. "But we found that this planet hosts a great deal of energy. Not all of it is valuable to us. Electricity is mostly too strong to be processed. But... we found one source that is like an infinite meal source."

"The kids from my old school?" Amy asked dumbfounded. "What were you doing to them?"

"Nothing bad, really!" he implored. "And we never ever kidnapped anyone! I heard of the case of the missing boy though." A quick glance shot towards Roka. "We had nothing to do with him. All we did was build a machine that collects some stray energy from human emotions. It only takes a tiny bit of energy from each person. They don't notice. It doesn't even make them tired. But for us it's valuable."

"I see... That makes a lot of sense." The Doctor stirred his tea with a small spoon. "Especially humans at that age possess a true abundance of emotional energy. Especially at a festival like that."

Steppan only nodded. "We never meant any harm. And it was easy to hack into a few human resources to get some money. We keep the school clean and maintain and pay the staff well. We never meant any harm, you have to believe me."

Roka sighed and sipped at her tea. "Do you know anything else of the _blink_ then?" she asked hopefully. "You were already here when it happened, right? And the traces the Doctor found at my house lead to you."

"Oh... that's..." The alien shot an anxious glance up to the Time Lord. "We investigated a little. It was such a heartbreaking story and when we were at the house there was such a strange energy around it... I... can give the readings to you, if you want. We couldn't quite make anything out of them."

"Yes, please. My TARDIS surely can handle it." The Doctor smiled widely. "Now... I don't think there is any reason to stop you two from going on."

"What?" Amy exclaimed. "But they drain emotions from students, haven't you listened?"

"Yeah, but no one gets hurt or harmed or even scratched. I'm certainly not going to damn those two to search for another food source, or even to their death." He shook his head. "Nah. I don't see anything wrong here."

"Ugh, fine." Amy sighed and glanced over at Roka. "Sorry that we couldn't find a trace."

"Well, we have the readings," the Doctor tossed in. "I'm sure that'll bring us further."

"Yeah..." Roka mumbled, glaring at her now empty mug. "Does that mean... we're leaving?"

"No way!" Amy protested. "The festival is still going on. And I daresay we all need a little fun after this evening. And on the house of course." She winked towards the alien.

"Uh... if you want," he stammered. "In the hall everything's free anyway... but I can let you in officially, so no one will bother you." Carefully Steppan glanced at everyone, then rose to his feet, slightly bowing before the Doctor. "Thank you for your kindness." Then he turned to Roka and took her hand. "I'm sorry we can't provide more information. I hope you can find your brother. I know how important family is. We both know."

"I... yeah. Thank you," she mumbled and nodded.

"Alright then! Back to the party!" Amy cheered and ran ahead.


	21. II - Dancing thoughts

It was and probably would ever stay a mystery to Roka how Amy could be so cheerful all the time. The woman possessed an amount of energy that was hard to battle, even after everything that had transpired this evening. On their way back to the hall she had constantly probed Steppan for details about his home planet, and he had been happy to tell everything he could still remember.

It would take a few hours to completely heal Michail's injuries anyway, so the Doctor had agreed to Amy's plan. And all three had insisted that Roka would come along as well.

"Here." Steppan handed the Doctor a small device in the basement. "It's all the data we gathered from the Arkerson house. The readings are weird and... hard to remember. I can't really explain it. Look for yourselves."

"Thank you," Roka muttered. "And... sorry I was so angry before."

Steppan smiled and placed a hand on her shoulder. "I understand. If Michail would vanish, I'd probably act even worse. I'll pray you will find your brother unharmed."

He lead them back upstairs where the students were still partying, unknowingly of what was happening to them. The Doctor had insisted on taking a closer look at the machines to make sure it really wouldn't harm anyone and had eventually pocketed his sonic with a content hum. Not before optimizing the process a tiny little bit though.

Meanwhile Amy had disappeared in the crowd and Roka spotted her somewhat later with a dark haired girl. The two laughed loudly about something, before they took off to flirt with a bunch of nearby boys.

The Doctor and Roka strode along the booths for a while, thoroughly enjoying everything they had to offer.

"Oh, you have to try these fried... I don't even what they are!" he exclaimed and held a stick with small fried balls in her direction. "And these candies from the last one... my, you humans are really creative with food. And there you wonder why I love your planet so much."

Roka clutched a cardboard cup with coffee, eyeing the passing people and ignored most of the Doctor's blabbering. She still hadn't gotten used to the looks she got here and then, and the loud music and chattering started to give her a headache.

"Oof," she sighed loudly and leaned her back against a wall. "I really don't think my head ever hurt that much so often."

"You have to take it slow, old lady," the Doctor teased with a wide grin.

"Pffff, I don't _actually_ age, you know that."

"Yeeeeah, but all the experiences, the memories, the running. It all leaves traces on a person." He pointed a lolly in her direction. "And you had plenty of those."

He was right, but that didn't help much, so she eventually popped an aspirin and settled for getting more coffee into her blood stream. During her solo travels she had actually gotten rid of this little addiction, but all the ruckus made her really crave the caffeine. Without she would probably simply fall asleep right at the spot.

Maybe that wouldn't be so bad though. Now that things had calmed down her brain had the opportunity to process the occurrence from a few hours before. Was it really already so long ago that she had last seen him? It felt like much longer, and it hurt, leaving her in a state she couldn't quite name. Everything suddenly seemed so pointless and empty. And lonely.

Somehow she wished to be awake enough to do something plainly stupid now, but to her discontentment the caffeine didn't help too much. Her body, obviously, was already used to these doses and simply refused to react in the desired way to it. With a frustrated sigh she leaned against some wall, crossed her arms and closed her eyes for a while. Maybe that would help.

Slowly the loud chattering of the people started to fade into white noise. The music changed from fast paced songs to slow ballads, then to rocky tunes and to who knows what so often, she didn't really care anymore. Everything became a blur and she slipped away into a trance like state, that would allow her to rest a little and still stay conscious enough, in case anything would happen around her.

"May I have this dance?" someone said in front of her, his voice barely audible over all the noises.

"Piss off," Roka grumbled, not even bothering to open her eyes. She absolutely wasn't in the mood to dance with any of those teenagers. "I'm way too old for you anyway."

"Oh? I admit it is quite the age gap. But I still count a few centuries more than you."

A chuckle followed and Roka's eyes snapped open when she finally recognized the voice. Her heart did a painful jump and she jolted upright, mouth dropping open. There, right in front of her, right when she had accepted to never see him again, stood the Master, a smirk plastered over his face, eyes alight with mirth.

"You came back!" she exclaimed and could barely restrain herself from simply hugging all the air out of his lungs. Something she wasn't sure to survive, despite what he had told her before.

Only now did she notice that he had changed attire, now wearing a white dress-shirt with a black tie and above it a black vest. It looked astonishingly well on him, making her almost feel a little shabby in her own clothes.

"I sure did," he said happily, even though his smile didn't quite reach his eyes. "Could impossibly leave without asking you for a proper dance at least once. The one on the asteroid doesn't count. So..." He bowed down a little, declined his head and reached a hand out to her, his voice dropping an octave lower. "Roka Arkerson, can I share this one last pleasure with you?"

Without the slightest hesitation she placed her own hand in his, heart jumping at the light that came to his eyes at that. The Master straightened, glanced down at her for a moment and then lead her to the middle of the hall, where other people also were dancing. Some slower tune was playing right now. Roka didn't know the song, but she absolutely didn't care anyway, her eyes glued to the Master's face, unwilling to ever take them off again.

He placed his other hand on her hip, drawing her a little closer so he could lead her in small circles, not caring at all that it was way too formal for a place like this.

"That... sounded as if you were leaving anyway after this," Roka finally realized and sadness washed over her.

"Yeah, I will. Just decided to be a little selfish and mean before that." He chuckled. "Don't worry tough. You won't have to ever see me again after tonight."

"So it is set?"

A sad smile was the only answer at first, but then he spoke, just loud enough to be heard over the crowd. "You know I care for myself too much. You want me to be honest?" He waited until Roka nodded and continued, admitting, "I can't do this any longer. After Gallifrey I thought it wouldn't bother me anymore. But then you somehow materialized inside my TARDIS..."

"Huh?"

"Yeah... It's no coincidence that I found you at this exact point in time. It was _you_ who brought me there." An almost pained smile whizzed over his face. "I still have no idea how you got in there, you could barely remember anything and your matter was completely dissolving. I couldn't even touch you."

"Is that..." She took a deep breath. "That's what you meant with a ghost. You said you had prevented it..."

The Master nodded. "I knew I had to. There was no other way to release you from that state."

"As if that had been the reason," she grumbled. "You only wanted to prevent your timeline from changing."

"Yes," he quickened to confirm and drew her a little closer. "You know what it is that would have changed otherwise? What would have been missing?"

Puzzled she blinked at him and shook her head. "There are so many possibilities. How am I supposed to-"

"You," the Master interrupted calmly. "I don't know what else and I honestly don't care. But you would be missing from my timeline, and that I couldn't allow to happen." He looked up and into the distance, his face a carefully crafted mask of composure, although Roka could see how much effort it must cost him to maintain it. "Even if it meant for me to be forced to end your life."

Her heart clenched at those words and from the unexpected honesty he was showing her right now. Roka could only imagine how it must have been to search for her all these years, knowing what he would have to do the moment he finally found her. A lump sat in her throat, disabling her from saying anything and only allowing her to silently follow his slow lead, even though the music had changed to an unfitting tempo.

Thoughts were racing through her mind, memories and emotions; and suddenly everything got wiped away by one single realisation. She didn't want him to go.

"So... there is no way you won't leave?"

His gaze wandered back to her face and he slightly shook his head. "You don't want me here. And I don't want to run after a shadow. What I showed you in the headmaster's office... Imagine the same thing, but cold and like ice. I won't show _that_ you. It hurts. And it won't go away if I don't get myself distracted."

"But... what will you do then?" She fought hard to hold back her tears, having no clue how she could convince him. He would never believe that she wanted him to stay.

"I don't know," he admitted. "I tried to be _me_ when I left Gallifrey, but it doesn't feel right anymore. It's so quiet I can hear my thoughts running through my head. And they are really annoying." Amused he grinned a little at that. "There are so many new things, and old ones that are completely changed somehow..." He closed his eyes and gently dropped his forehead against Roka's. "Without the drums... I don't know, who I am anymore." Slowly his eyes opened and a smile tugged at the corners of his mouth. "That's why I have to find it out again. And that won't work if you distract me all the time, little crow."

With that he retreated and let go of her hand and hip to take a step back, making clear that this was the end. They would truly never meet again, Roka realized, when he plainly turned around and casually walked away and into the crowd.

Not even thinking for another second she stormed after him and grabbed his arm firmly.

"What if I ask you to stay?" she begged, hoping he would at least listen.

A perplex look hit her and it seemed as if the Master wanted to tear his arm away, but instead he turned around to her, observing her face as if he needed to make sure she wasn't tricking him. Eventually he carefully loosened her hand from him and took a step back, but stayed put, waiting for her to speak up.

"Hear me out... please." Roka shifted uncomfortably, not sure how to put all of what was inside her into proper words. "I... I'm sorry how I treated you. It wasn't right, I know that. I just was so... so..." It was hard to keep the tears at bay and she had to swallow the forming lump in her throat. "I really was convinced you simply had abandoned me there. It's... the sort of thing you do, to be fair. You can't entirely blame me for assuming it."

"No. Guess I can't," he said dryly.

"I know I should have told you earlier. I know I shouldn't have acted like an idiot towards you. We should have... just talked. A long while ago. But I guess we are both too stubborn to simply do that." A confirming smile told her to continue, so she did, glancing at her shoes though. "Does it still matter when I say sorry _now_? Because I am. I really am."

The Master took a step closer and put a finger under her chin to make her look up. A cheeky smile met her when she did.

"Of course it does," he said in a soft voice.

Once more she swallowed hard and swiped his hand away.

"Master? Can I be cruel and selfish for once?"

He raised an eyebrow and chuckled. "Who am _I_ to forbid it?"

Roka took a deep breath, gathering together all of her inner strength. "I can't make anything undone. I can't even begin to ask you to forgive my stupidity. And... so much has happened. So much time has passed. For me a lot more than for you, in more than one way." She shook her head and sighed defiantly. "I can't promise anything. There is no guarantee that anything of what I felt in the past might ever return. But I don't want you to leave. _Please_ don't!" she now begged. "I can't stand the thought. It hurts and I don't want it. And I'm aware that it's cruel, I know it! But... but..." A shiver went through her body, tears shooting into her eyes, unable to stay there any longer, making her sight blur and her world drown in a foggy desperation.

And then there were arms draped firmly around her, holding her so tight it almost hurt. Her head was buried at his chest and all she could do was to keep breathing to not completely fall apart. "Don't leave me," she mumbled, unsure if he could even hear it in the loud environment.

"I won't," he muttered into her ear. "If that is your wish, I will obey for once."

"It is." She glanced up and met his glinting eyes. "I know, I have no right to ask that of you..."

"Oh, don't be silly!" He laughed out loud, making a few heads turn towards them. "No one else has this right. So make use of it." Widely smiling he wiped a stray tear from her face. "Will you help me in return?"

"With what?"

"There is this bloke, calling himself the Master. But I don't quite know who he is. Might need a little help to find that out," he enquired smiling.

"Oh... Yeah, of course. No idea how... but I will do my best." Roka sighed. "We might need to find that out together. I'm stuck a little myself without the glitch."

"I noticed." The Master grinned sarcastically.

And suddenly there was a smile on her face, wide and from somewhere deep inside, as if it had been locked away up to this point. She even started to get aware of their surroundings again, a veil lifting from her mind, leaving her with a light heart.

"Hey... I always loved that song," she remarked, when she recognized the first few tones. "You might hate it though."

"Why would I?"

"Mhm... because it's called _The Sound of Silence_."

The Master groaned dramatically and rolled his eyes, his face dropping slightly though when Roka took his hand and placed her other on his arm.

"Wouldn't mind another dance," she offered, still smiling.

The Master smiled back, grabbed her hand a little firmer and drew her close again. But this time Roka wasn't quite so willing to be lead in circles and instead only rested her head against his chest. Her heart was beating fast from the joy that was flooding her and all she wanted for a little while was to be held by the Master and to indulge in the knowledge that he would stay with her.

"Ah, bloody hell," he cursed. "Really want to kiss you right now."

Grinning against his chest she chuckled lightly. "Don't want to move," she only mumbled, not twitching a muscle.

A moment passed, then there was a small laugh. "That wasn't a _no_." The Master dropped his chin on her head and continued to sway with her. "But I won't. I'm not going to do anything you won't let me."

Now she looked up, meeting a sincerity in his eyes that was unfamiliar and surprising. Somehow he really had changed, making Roka wonder if she actually would be able to help him find out in which ways.

"It's enough to know you want to have me around." The Master grinned eagerly from ear to ear. "Anything else can take its time."

"But... what if..." Roka swallowed. "What if it never comes back?" Even though she wished it would right now, there was no guarantee.

"Mhm... you're clearly asking the wrong person here. But even I know you can't force these things. And since my hypnosis also doesn't work on you anymore..." The Master poked out his tongue. "You know I can be incredibly patient. And if I have to wait forever... so be it. I will."

Perplex she blinked up, a cosy warmth spreading in her chest. It was so weird to have him be so honest about his feelings, but somehow it made her feel safe and assured. If he of all people was able to do that... maybe she too could finally accept who she had become and look into a brighter future, knowing that she would not be alone on this long journey.

"Oi, you two!" the Doctor's voice greeted. "That's not how it works! At least it's what Amy told me. And she's human, so I guess..."

"What the old alien wants to say..." Amy chimed in loudly from next to him. "...is that he wants to dance too. And he has asked out at least ten girls by now. The old charmer!" She slapped his arm amicably and grinned at Roka.

"Hey! It's fun!" he protested but then held a hand out to Roka, looking way too serious. "Can I dance with you?"

She chuckled and let go of the Master, not without giving him a last smile. "Okay, okay. But I bet you're worse at this than I."

"Not true! I danced with the queen on Goztrelkortika. The whole night! And I won a dancing competition on the planet Onlerfiert, that lasted a whole week. My feet never hurt so much, I can tell you."

He went on like that for another while, but spared Roka from enduring any wild moves. Instead it was more a flouncing than actual dancing with him and they stepped on each other's feet a lot.

"You really are worse than I," Roka giggled. "Seems you at least didn't master _human_ dancing."

"Aaaaw, don't be so mean!" he whined and let go. "There, dance with Amy!" With that he rushed away to ask the next poor human.

Amy laughed out loud and placed both hands on Roka's shoulders. "Well, why not? I could teach you some moves." She winked, then suddenly cocked her head and raised both eyebrows. "Does he stay?"

"Eh, what?"

Amy chuckled. "I can't remember ever having seen you smile so much. That must mean something. And since I'm an awesome detective, I deduct the Master will stay with us for a little longer."

Roka puffed up her cheeks, feeling how her face got a little warmer. "Yes, he will," she admitted. "I could convince him."

"Ha! That's wonderful!" The other woman happily whirled Roka in a half circle. "Didn't think that old grump would actually listen to anyone. How comes? What did he say?"

"N... nothing important," she rambled, not the slightest eager to tell about everything. "I only asked him to stay, so he does."

"Okay, don't tell me." Amy poked out her tongue. "But you better be nice from now on. Have the feeling he will change his mind rather fast otherwise. Aaaand he probably won't allow you to cuddle him like that anymore."

Roka purposefully stepped on Amy's foot, a mock-scowl on her face. But the red-head only laughed some more and then hugged Roka tightly.

"And we will all do our best to find your little brother. Promise."

"Yes, yes, we will!" the Doctor seconded, appearing from who knew where. "I bet even he will," he thumbed over his shoulder at the Master, who also approached now, not looking too happy about being dragged into something again.

But then he nodded and gave Roka a warm smile. "Guess I can poke my nose into this as well from time to time."

There was no way Roka could have felt any happier in this very moment, surrounded by everyone that was important to her, knowing of their support and encouragement. But the only one she kept focusing her eyes on was the Master. Roka still had no idea what to make of everything, and things certainly would not go smooth from here on.

But hell, she wasn't, for the life of hers, able to keep herself from smiling back at him. And she didn't care about what anyone might think when she, once more, took his hand for another dance.

"You're really into this, aren't you?" Roka mocked. "And that on a party for humans. You should be ashamed."

"Not even a bit!"

He grinned from ear to ear, drew her flush against him and leaned down to her, proving once more to be unable to respect any personal space. Not that Roka would mind, though, leaning in a little so their foreheads connected, their eyes locked tight. And for a few moments they only stared at each other, the music forgotten.

"Still can't believe you searched for me that long," Roka eventually muttered.

"I would have done so even longer, if I had to." The mischievous smile on his lips widened. "But you know what I just realized?"

She slightly shook her head.

"You roamed time and space for probably over a millennia in that one timeline."

It was indeed an astonishing thought. Frightening even. Roka didn't even want to think about how lonely and miserable her other self must have been, slowly disintegrating into a loose swarm of particles. Not able to touch anything, unable to be remembered.

A ghost indeed.

"But after all those years, after you lost almost all your memories, after you were barely a life form at all anymore..." the Master continued, eyes still glued to hers. He stroked a finger tenderly along her jaw and smiled. "It was _me_ to whom you came."

Roka huffed and smiled meekly. "Because I missed you."

"I missed you too, little crow."


	22. II - A little break

After all that ruckus the crew wholeheartedly agreed to take a little break from time travelling. Even the Doctor wasn't too averse to staying in one place for more than a day, and, as he had told them with a displeased face, it would take quite some time to analyze Steppan's data anyway.

"It's a completely wibbly mess of signatures and trails and particles of ghujarin dust, although I think that has nothing to do with everything. Could be a leftover from their last dust shower after the crowning of ophirtus Kelkrak. But the wires and time strings are so messy, I don't know if the TARDIS will be able to make sense of it at all. It will, of course! But that might take... days!"

Roka's mind already started to wander off, expecting him to ramble on about some nonsense and only snippet-wise about something important. If anything would actually come from that data she would learn about it soon enough.

It took them a bit to decide where to actually go, but they all agreed that it should be a quiet place, without adventures around the corner - at least for one day - and maybe something to pass the time with. It all lead them to Finland. Not the most impressive or interesting place to be, but Helsinki was a fantastic town to go exploring and the location also fitted Roka's wish to visit the sea.

She sauntered through the big city with Amy, enjoying the astonishingly calm atmosphere this place possessed, and took up an old hobby of hers as well. Photography. Not that Roka was extremely skilled in it, but it used to be a fine way to remember places. Now it also served the two women to make silly selfies.

Later that day they returned to the beach, where the Doctor had parked the TARDIS. He was lying in the sparse sand at the bay, only wearing bathing trunks and having a high glass with some blue liquid in it in one hand, and a book in the other.

"Well... it is warmer than anticipated. But certainly not swimming temperatures," Amy complained and shivered dramatically - not without letting a long look wander over the Doctor though.

She was right though. The temperature barely exceeded 13°C and it also was extremely windy. Not that this would prevent the locals from surfing in the water nearby. At least four of them paced over the waves.

One of them the Master, who just got swiped off his board by a nasty gust of wind and dipped with a big splash into the sea. Moments later he got washed ashore, spitting out water and cursing at earth as a whole. His surfboard drifting out into the unknown meanwhile.

Roka stepped closer and glanced down at him. "That was quite miserable."

"Pah! Do it better!" he snapped and sprang up, rubbing sand out of his hair.

"Way too cold. I really don't want to run around without clothes right now."

"Och," Amy added smirking. "I actually don't mind the sight."

And the Master clearly didn't mind being looked at, giving Roka an impish wink. She pointedly turned away with folded arms, although maybe a tiny little bit more because she wanted no one to notice that she had, indeed, looked.

Shortly after a wet arm draped itself around her throat, pushing her slightly backwards.

"Don't pretend you don't like what you see!" the Master cheered.

"Get away from me! You're completely wet!" Roka scolded. "I'm going to be sick because of you!"

"Tch, I thought you were immune to human viruses." But he let go nonetheless, slipping into his pants and dress shirt, even though he didn't bother with buttoning up the latter, or getting himself dried beforehand.

"Only to the really harmful ones. Cold viruses change too often, it's not really possible to immunize yourself against them." She sighed.

And glanced away once more. The way he stood there, tousled and his shirt swaying in the wind was... No! Roka walked away, scowling at her own mind. Only because she had agreed to be nicer didn't mean... _anything_ else! She kicked a pebble away, but still smiled a little.

So much had changed. And that they were now at a place like this, just having fun... who would have ever thought that? Especially seeing the two Time Lords laughing together. It probably wouldn't take long before they would find a reason to fight again, but it was a welcomed sight nonetheless. Especially considering how much the Master had hated the Doctor right before the whole ordeal with his resurrection.

Amy suddenly and very purposefully bumped into Roka, wrapping both arms around her. "There is ice cream!" she squealed, grabbed her hand and rushed towards a booth nearby.

The second day was a lot calmer. Roka decided to stay put and got out her sketchbooks and pencils to draw the scenery for a bit. Maybe also some seagulls. There were hundreds of them flying around, sassy and loud, stealing food from nearby children and sometimes sat so close to Roka that she might have just stretched a hand out to poke them. But they always flew away too fast.

Hours later a cola can appeared right in front of her face, condensate water running down the aluminium. She took it perplexed and looked up, seeing the Master standing right behind her - fully clothed this time.

"Not too shabby," he commented her drawings and sat next to her in the sand, popping his own can. "Guess you have no idea where the others are?"

Roka shook her head and opened the can, enjoying the cool cola. "I bet Amy forced the Doctor to go shopping with her. Or he discovered something he can blabber on about to her. Or both."

"Yeah, sounds about right." The Master chuckled and watched the waves in front of them.

For a while Roka did the same, simply enjoying this weirdly casual moment. It reminded her of the time the two had travelled together, back when the drums still been there but hadn't consumed his mind too badly yet. Enough to make him painstakingly crazy at some times, but not enough to actually hinder them from having fun. Not that they would have enjoyed such _calm_ moments, but still... Roka glanced sideways and saw the Master having his eyes closed, arms folded over his knees, one hand playing with the can.

"I bet you like the sea," she said eventually. "Calm, but the waves make it not _too_ quiet."

"Calm..." He smiled with closed eyes. "The sea is never calm. Somewhere a storm is always tossing the water around. Chaos in its purest form. Uncontrollable and raw."

Roka chuckled. "You sound like an old sailor."

"Water or time... there's always waves to climb and winds to tame. All we are is mere playthings in the sea of eternity." He said all that in a voice as if he were half asleep, but Roka knew his mind was sharp at all times, ready to jump up and storm after the next idea. Only sometimes... sometimes he was like that, talking in a way that made it impossible not to listen and to dream a little.

Eventually she took up her sketchbook once again and started to roughly draw the Master. Not in an attempt to catch the scene realistically, but to ban the mood on her paper. He glanced over after a while, raising an eyebrow. But instead of saying anything he took another one of her sketchbooks and a pencil and sat in a way that Roka wasn't able to see what he was doing.

Like that another hour or so must have passed, the sun was already setting with a warm orange glow and the wind had picked up speed. Soon there would be only darkness filling the sky, tinting the waves in an eternal blackness and enabling the crescent moon to shine its pale light over the waves.

"Now look at you two!" Amy's voice resounded from behind before she came in sight. "Oh... not bad, Roka. Didn't know you can draw like that." She bent down a little to observe the images.

"It's only lots of practise." She shrugged and turned the pages to show some of the other stuff. Mostly random objects or animals. "If you do that for a few decades it's literally impossible not to learn."

"Mhm... It's still great. And you, Master? Drawing too?" Amy stepped to him and glanced over his shoulder.

"Ah, there you all are!" The Doctor too came over, carrying some twigs and stones with him. "Oh, what are you looking at?"

Roka too was curious and leaned over to see what the Master had done, only to find the pages filled with almost realistic replicas of the scene ahead, one of a nose-diving seagull, and one of the crooked cola can that was standing on a shaky stack of stones in front of him.

Amy let out an approving whistle and squealed, "You're an artist! That's... sorry Roka, but that's absolutely amazing! Look at these details!"

Back when they had travelled with the stolen TARDIS, the Master had showed Roka some of his older sketch books, that had been filled with all kinds of things he had encountered on his travels, banned onto paper until the drums had become too loud for him to continue this little hobby. Roka had loved to look over all the little lively details, and in the end it had inspired her to draw on her own.

"Yeah, Amy's right," the Doctor seconded. "It got a lot better since the academy. Didn't know you were still practising."

"Err..." The Master coughed slightly and closed the sketchbook. "Wasn't for a long time. The drums, you know."

"Oh... yeah. But they are gone now. You could become fantastic!" the other Time Lord went on excitedly. "Look at..."

"No," the Master just said toneless and stood, tossing the book in Roka's hands.

"Not evil enough?" she asked and threw an amused look in his direction.

"I mean," and there he crossed his arms and slightly kicked away some sand, "this is not _art_. All I do is observe and copy. Every idiot can do that with enough time and patience." A mean smirk graced his face. "Look at Roka's stuff and you know what I mean."

"Hey!" she protested, but had to admit the truth of his words. "It's a skill nonetheless."

"Oh yeah?" The Master poked a finger at her. "There is nothing remotely special about it. You can get better results with snapping a photo with your little camera."

"And that bothers you?" Roka asked and observed him with a slightly tilted head.

"No!" he grumbled. "Maybe... I don't know. It's not about some stupid drawings..."

"What about then?" the Doctor tossed in. "Something's on your mind. I can sense it."

"Come on, tell us," Amy encouraged.

A bit dumbfounded about all this sudden interest, the Master let his arms sink and clearly was searching for the right words. His eyes wandered to Roka, making her get a hunch of what this was about, even though she wasn't so sure.

"I see..." he started and stopped immediately for a few seconds, then shook his head. "...everything. The sparkling particles in an aurora, dust that is carried by the wind, every tiny reflection of the moonlight on the waves and every speck of colour on a foreign world." Again he paused, throwing glances at everyone as if to make sure he wasn't rambling nonsense. Roka nodded to make him continue though, and so he did. "But it's only images. I know there is more behind. Things I can't quite grasp, stuff I never noticed because of the drums and..."

"And all you can do is destroy them, but you are unable to create anything on your own," Roka muttered, suddenly understanding.

The Master glared at her almost hatefully for a second, but then his features smoothed and he nodded. "It's stupid, I know. So forget about it. All of you."

"Noooo!" the Doctor protested and pointed a finger at the other man. "For once you want to do something not evily meany and nasty! I'm not going to stop you from it!"

"And _I_'m going to feed you your bowtie, if you don't stop blabbering like that!"

"Booooys!" Amy called out and stepped between them. "Stop the fighting."

"Good idea!" the Doctor seconded, clapping his hands. "Oh, I know! Since we're all so artsy here right now, let's go to a museum! Get some inspiration from all the great minds there!"

There came an annoyed grunt from the Master, but Amy already interrupted and told everyone how she always had wanted to visit the Musée d'Orsay in Paris. All while hopping from foot to foot and having an attitude to her that was annoyingly contagious.

There was the usual bickering between the Master and the Doctor because of the stabilizers, then he familiar landing sounds, and shortly after they all rushed outside, lead by the two women. A light carpet of snow was dusting the ground and the wind was cold.

"Two red-heads now," the Master grumbled, while trotting next to the Doctor.

"What?"

"I bet that little princess of yours did that on purpose."

The Doctor shook his head. "I have absolutely not the slightest idea what you're rambling on about, Master."

He only grumbled something indistinguishable and followed inside the building. It was filled to the brim with humans, of course. And with lots of children at that.

"Oh, this is amazing!" Roka exclaimed and turned around herself. "Why have I never been here before?"

"Because you're still a little idiot?" the Master offered with a smile.

It made him annoyingly happy to see her so frisky. No matter how things had changed, he still should keep at a good distance to her to not get himself too involved in... feelings. The word alone made him almost shiver in disgust. There was no changing the fact that they existed... and he hated it. Feelings made one weak and slow, and he wasn't allowed to... to... No, right now it actually didn't really matter. There was no real aim for him, nor any big plans or anything the like.

Maybe for once he truly was allowed to just... live a little.

"What's with that picture?" Roka asked. "You've been staring at it for almost a minute now."

The Master glanced down at her, how she had her hands clasped behind her back, slightly rocking back and forth on her heels. Today she wore a black hoodie, with blue plaid inside the hood and also plaid sleeves. His heart dropped a little once more, because her familiar haircut stirred so many old memories, but at the same time the red color and her new clothing style were constantly reminding him of how things had changed.

"Come on, I'm not looking _that_ different now," she eventually teased with a somewhat flustered smile.

"No... it's just enough." The Master shrugged, unwilling to expose himself any further. "Bit dull in here, if you ask me," he murmured instead. "Only statues and boring paintings. Some three year old Time Tods could paint better than that."

"Mhm... I guess it's so fascinating because those artists were ahead of their time," Roka pondered, while they headed up some stairs. "They used yet unknown techniques and oftentimes people were... how to put it... a lot less smarter than today."

"Any less smart and you all revert back to apes," he grumbled.

"And still we make it to the end of the universe. And you Time Lords don't."

The Master stood abruptly, throwing a murderous look in her direction. Roka froze and blinked, then looked away.

"Sorry. That was... mean."

"Ahhhh, Van Gough!" the Doctor's cheery voice greeted. He had Amy in taw, who was eagerly inspecting the images on the walls.

A man in the back just told a bunch of kids how Van Gogh had only sold a single picture in his life and some other facts.

"See?" the Master snorted. "Humans just have no taste at all. That guy should have gotten buried in money!" He walked past the paintings, letting his eyes wander over each and every one.

"And what's so fascinating about Gogh?" Amy wanted to know. "I heard how you called the rest of the artists here toddlers."

With a sigh and an eye-roll the Master turned to her. Suddenly he felt in a good mood to simply tie the red-head up and leave her in some wardrobe.

"He has a weird style," Roka remarked, eyeing a picture with lots of blue swirls. "But somehow I like it. It's as if... mhm... I don't know how to explain."

"Yeah, I know what you mean," the Master said next to her, mulling over the subject with his chin in hand. "It's as if there is more than there is... so to speak."

"Shall we visit?" the Doctor chimed in excitedly, but then his face dropped. "Oh, this is not good. Look at that." He pointed at a painting of a church.

"What's there?" Amy wanted to know.

"There in the window."

"Oh... is that... a face?"

"Looks more like something from a creepy pasta," Roka added, now seeing it too.

There, in one of the windows, sat a strange little figure. A head of some sorts, but gruesome to look at. Roka pondered whether or not it might just be an artifact, an accident of colors running into each other or anything the like.

"This is... it looks familiar," the Doctor went on concerned. "I have a bad feeling. Really, really bad. This thing... it's evil. And I know evil when I see it."

"Are you talking of me?" the Master asked with a wide grin and also peeked at the picture. "Eeew, what the heck is that thing? Certainly not as evil as me, I can promise..."

The Doctor was already hopping away and towards the curator. After pointing at his bowtie and short exchange, he came back to meet a sour look on the other Time Lord's face.

"Why is no one taking me serious these days?" he complained. "Should go and blow up some stuff again. Maybe then you start trembling again when I'm around."

"Well, actually," the Doctor coughed. "We'll go and visit Van Gogh. And you, Master, won't do any harm at all to the fella, you hear me?"

"Oi! No, I won't!" he protested with folded arms. "I'm evil, not a bloody idiot!"

"You only want to talk to him yourself, don't you?" Roka asked.

The Master folded his arms and pursed his lips, unwilling to admit that she was right. All of this was really gnawing on his hard earned reputation, but hell... "I really badly need to ask that guy a few questions!" he decided and stormed away towards the TARDIS.


	23. II - Van Gogh

Darkness spread forebodingly around the city, encircling it like a vile predator on the hunt. All lights in the windows of the sleepy houses had already been dimmed to give their inhabitants a restful night, although their dreams were haunted by small and big problems, and eventually disturbed, as a scream pierced the night.

A man sat there in his garden, listening to the sound and hiding his head under his arms in fright. He had seen the abomination which he was sure had caused a horrible death to whomever the scream might have belonged.

But who would ever believe him? He, who had no right to exist and was shunned by everyone? Why had this monster not taken _him_? Why did it have to be some poor soul instead? There were so many things only his eyes alone were able to see, but his mind couldn't grasp the logic behind such a cruelty.

How could there be so much darkness in a world that was so full of beauty?

In another night, where blackness once more had swallowed the town, a noise filled the cool silent air. Had anyone heard it, they surely would have started to doubt their mind, for no such noise had ever been heard in a time like this. And when it stopped, there suddenly stood a blue box in an alleyway, quite as if it had been there ever since.

The dreamy atmosphere of the night got disturbed as soon as the doors opened. Out hopped the Doctor, followed by Amy, Roka and lastly the Master.

"Okay, I got a plan!" the Doctor announced, while a cat got scared and ran out of the way. "It's brilliant, I swear."

"And I swear I'll tie you up in your own TARDIS if you don't stop making yourself so horribly important," the Master grumbled.

"Oh, calm down, old friend. We'll just look out for Vincent, ask him to lead us right to that church and... voila!"

The other Time Lord groaned exasperated. "Seriously, how could you _ever_ defeat me even once?"

Amy walked next to Roka and muttered through her teeth, "I have an idea or two about _that_."

"I can hear you, copper bonce," the Master grumbled, turned around and snipped against her head.

"Oh yeah?" she snapped back sassily. "And stop making fun about my hair, grandpa."

"Oi! They are not white! It's blond!"

Roka glanced up at him with a slightly cocked head. "Mhm... not so sure about that. Depends on the light, if you ask me."

This went on for another few minutes until they reached a small café with orange lights and only a few customers outside. The whole atmosphere was calm and relaxed, until a voice shouted from inside. Someone stumbled through the doors, cursing at the person behind him. He had slightly red hair and an unkempt beard.

"Come on, just one painting for the drinks," he implored.

"No, no and absolutely no!" Outside followed a man, who probably was the owner of the place. "I don't want any of this creepy stuff in here. And you aren't welcomed either."

A few of the waitresses were already rolling their eyes as if they knew those fights all too well, and the guests did their best to ignore the scene in front of them. Before the argument could escalate though, the Master stepped in, grabbed the red haired man by a shoulder and spun him around.

"Don't harm him!" the Doctor squeaked from behind and rushed to the two.

"Hey!" the owner shouted. "If you have trouble with him too, then deal with it somewhere else. You're going to scare all my guests away!"

"Good idea." The Master grinned and grabbed the man's shoulder tighter, so he squirmed a little.

"Please, I have nothing to give you," he begged, fear in his eyes as he saw that he was surrounded by so many people.

"Noooo, no, we don't want to harm you." The Doctor held up his hands to symbolize peace.

"We should head somewhere else though," Amy uttered and threw an excited glance at the man. "We all might get in trouble otherwise."

He lifted his head and met her gaze. The fear suddenly like forgotten, a smile graced his face. "With you, cute girl, anytime."

Amy chuckled and followed behind when they all lead the man away from the café and into an alleyway nearby. Only then did the Master let go, but placed himself in a way to make escape impossible. And now all four of them stood there, staring at the man responsible for their visit. No other person himself than the praised Vincent van Gogh.

"Hello, I'm the Doctor," the Time Lord introduced himself finally, and after a slight cough.

Vincent rolled his eyes and groaned. "Oh, bloody... I knew it!"

"Sorry?"

He sighed again. "My brother's always sending doctors, but you won't be able to help."

"Oh, no, not that kind of doctor," he assured and snatched the painting from Vincent's hands to show it around. "That's incredible, don't you all think?"

"Yeah, it's amazing," Roka agreed.

The painter coughed and laughed bitterly. "Then you can't have seen many paintings in your life so far. It's terrible."

"Oh?" made the Master and snatched the paper from the Doctor. "Let me tell you, human, I've seen a great deal of things in my life. But you... there's something to it, I can't understand." With that he towered over the poor man, letting a menacing grin spread over his face. His eyes bore into Vincent's. "So tell me. What is your little secret?"

Vincent bent slightly backwards and opened his mouth as if to speak, but closed it again and only gulped. "Wh.. what are you doing to me?" He gasped and stumbled backwards against the wall of a house. "My head feels so weird."

"Maybe you should try talking to people without hypnotizing them?" Roka suggested and earned herself a murderous glare.

Before anyone could say or do anything else though, a loud and panicky scream filled the silent night, letting them all wince in surprise.

Roka sneaked from shadow to shadow, evading people and even animals. Sure, she had her perception filter, but it wasn't even remotely as effective as her glitch had been. Like that she was able to get to the crime scene though, where she found a young woman lying on the ground, covered in blood and her own guts. It really was a horrible sight and a few people around were turning away.

But she wasn't here for this. Well... not only. She had volunteered to take a peek, after Vincent had implored, he would only be chased away should he dare to let himself be seen around. However, now that she knew what had happened, she had a second mission. One the Doctor certainly would never agree to, but he didn't have to know about it after all.

So, while everyone else was busy gaping at the corpse and throwing guesses around, she sneaked into the café from before, vanished into the unguarded wine cellar and snatched a few bottles from the shelves. Careful not to be seen by accident, she then made her way back, successfully, much to her joy.

All the past years she had always relied on her glitch to give her an advantage, but it was good to know that she was still a good thief, even without.

With wide steps she hastened away to Vincent's house, where the others were staying. The Doctor had invited himself inside, ignoring all protests, until the painter had found himself unable to deny his guests entry. At his door Roka knocked five times, then two, then waited a bit.

The wood creaked open and a red bearded face peeked outside and down to her, his eyes lightening up when he saw the wine bottles.

"Aha! You're a true little devil, ey?" Vincent cheered and snatched a bottle.

Roka trod inside the house and found it to be filled with lots of not yet dried paintings, brushes, colours, papers and everything an artist's heart could ever desire. The main area was only dimly lit by the fireplace, around which the group had gathered in not so comfy wooden chairs. Only the Master stood at the window, hands clasped behind his back and staring out into the night.

"Do I smell coffee?" Roka asked and slumped down cross-legged on the dusty floor.

"Ah, yes," the Doctor said, not sounding too happy. "I wish he had some proper tea here instead."

"Coffee, my dear Doctor," Vincent announced, "is the true brewing of artists. That which wakens your spirits and fires your imagination!"

He filled another cup and reached it down to Roka, who took it with an agreeing nod. After that he opened one wine bottle and eagerly told about all the wonders he saw and the paintings he wanted to do, and the Doctor and Amy asked many questions which he answered, visibly happy about having willing listeners for once. Although he seemed slightly disturbed at the Doctor's obsession with the church. Especially after Roka had told where the scream had originated from.

Eventually she stood and stretched a little, before she trod next to the Master, who still hadn't moved from the window. Outside was a little backyard, filled with shrubs and some sunflowers.

"That must be a hellishly interesting backyard," she remarked sarcastically. "What's on your mind?"

It took him a while to answer, as if his consciousness needed a moment to return to the current place. He didn't move or turn, only quietly said, "Too much."

"You know. It's strange to see you that calm." She copied his pose and glared up at the stars. "Travelling with you always was so... wild. Never stopping, never resting, never a moment of peace."

"You miss that?" he asked, his voice bare of any emotion.

"Honestly?"

"Please."

She mulled over the subject for a bit, but there was no real answer. "I'm not sure," she admitted. "My own travels weren't very calm. Often. Sometimes they were, and I enjoyed both times. I also enjoyed running away with you, a lot. But... I don't think I could or could have lived like that forever."

"I'm glad it's over," he muttered and lowered his head.

Roka turned her head to him, cocking a brow. "And there I thought you enjoyed the mad run."

Finally a grin whizzed over his face and he looked down at her with an adventurous glint in his eyes. "Oh, I still do. And there is so, so much madness and destruction waiting to be done." He chuckled. "But it's nice not to be forced to action anymore. From now on I am my own... master so to speak."

She smiled at the wording, and it felt weirdly natural now, as did standing here with him so casually.

The silence got torn by a loud scream.

Everyone hurled around, the Doctor sprang to his feet, his eyes darting through the room. "Amy?! Where is she?"

He ran outside, closely followed by Vincent. Roka ran along, finding them all in the backyard, Amy lying on the ground with a dumbfounded look on her face.

"Away with you!" Vincent called out, grabbed a wooden fork and wagged it around in the empty air. "Don't you dare harming her, youuuuu!"

"Whoa, whoa... careful there. You're just seeing things." The Doctor stepped protectively in front of Amy and held up his hands.

"Run! Idiots! Run!" Vincent shouted and tried to shoo them away with his hand.

Roka already wanted to run closer, but the Master held a hand out to hold her back. "Don't," he hurried to say. "That's no hallucination."

"What?" she asked dumbfounded and watched Vincent continue whirling around his fork, while the Doctor managed to somehow always stand in the way. Then a thought struck her. "Do you see it too?"

"No," he grumbled and still held his arm out, as if to make sure she really wouldn't run off. "But watch the ground."

She did, and now saw it too. Where Vincent pointed his fork, some dust got whirled up from the dry ground. Meanwhile the Doctor was still busy trying to calm down the painter, hands raised and a look on his face as if he wanted to sooth a little child. He couldn't bring out another word though, as an invisible force suddenly swiped him off his feet and a weird, reptilian noise filled the air.

Only seconds later though a crate near a gap in the wall fell down and the strange fight ended abruptly. Vincent let his fork fall and helped to Doctor up from the ground.

"What. Was. That?!" Amy demanded, shock still on her face.

"That's a very..." The Doctor straightened his clothes, hair and bowtie. "...very good question indeed."

After that incident a whole week passed until the creature made another appearance. Where initially Vincent had only allowed them to stay for a single night, he now turned out to be very reluctant to let them go again.

For one part because suddenly there were people who were honestly interested in his art, for another reason, because they believed him in regards to the creature and were also eager to help.

The group learned quite a bit about the painter in that time. Most nights he peacefully snored in his bed, where in others he thrust around and screamed as if in pain, visions plaguing his mind and self-loath tearing at his sanity. No one, not even the Doctor, could ever get him out of this state, and when it was over, Vincent acted as if it had never happened.

"I don't see a mad man here," the Doctor muttered after another fit. "Sure, he's seeing things, but other than that its only depression. That's treatable! We should..."

"Should what?" the Master interrupted sourly, not very happy about having his thoughts disrupted by the annoying Time Lord.

"Haaah... I don't know... heal him? But that might rip him of his ability for his art. Who knows..." He rambled on for a bit and finally vanished outside the room.

The Master turned to the window again and continued to stare outside, deeply lost in random musings. He had come to somewhat appreciate the silence by now. Not for long spans of time, but it was... interesting to be alone with his own thoughts once in a while. And they truly went interesting ways. There were so many questions, about himself, but also about things he had encountered in the past. Riddles of time and space, unsolved mysteries and impossible places. Something urged him to move, to travel again and to... no, not to just _see_, as the Doctor would put it. He wanted to learn, to alter, to change things to his likings, uncover the truth of the impossible, solve the riddles not even his own race had been able to solve. So many ways to go, so many things to do, so many...

"Again the window?" Roka's voice tore him out of the thoughts.

And then there was that. This little human who had turned his world upside down, no matter how much he wanted to deny it. At least they had come to some kind of truce since the incident with the brothers. He couldn't give this state any other name. Roka still held a good distance to him, as if to be careful not to let him too close, which probably was the case. But she didn't seem to hate him anymore. That was something he could live with.

"And you sure like that thinking," she remarked with a slight smile and stood next to him.

"And what keeps _you_ awake?" he murmured. "Don't humans need a lot more sleep?"

Roka shrugged and glared outside, as if she could see something interesting there. Her eyes were mostly glued to the sky, which was bare of any clouds this night and showed thousands of twinkling stars. He could see that she missed travelling as much as he did. But now was not the time for that.

Moments later some more noise came from behind, and as both turned around, they saw Vincent dragging himself inside the room. He ignored their presence until he had started to brew some coffee.

"What a night," he said toneless and glared at the Master. Never did he show any fear, which was annoying, but regrettably understandable. This man before him had lost all hope in life and couldn't be bothered by either the prospect of living or dying any longer.

"You never answered my question, human," the Master remarked. "What's your secret? How can you paint like that?"

"Eh?" He scratched his head. "I... just do. Well, you see how that turns out. No secret here. Only a mad, lonely man with his head in the clouds." He dramatically pointed upwards and gazed at the two in front of him. "You know what? Let's go outside a bit. I actually feel like painting right now. And no... certainly not a church... whatever that Doctor of yours has with that."

Roka and the Master exchanged a short look and followed outside. The night was cool, but still warm enough not to freeze. They watched silently how Vincent put up a canvas and got out his brushes and colour palette, then he halted and seemed lost in thoughts for a good minute, before he shook his head and sighed.

"Any ideas what to paint?" he asked and looked at his guests.

The Master trod forward and examined Vincent, his eyes wandering up and down the fragile man. There was nothing special about this figure and still he had something intriguing about him.

"Can you paint something you've never seen with your own eyes?" the Master asked.

"Not sure..." he scratched his head. "How could I?"

"Because they say, you see things that aren't there, that you are a madman." The Master snickered to himself and let a wide, mean grin spread on his lips. "And I am a true master when it comes to madness."

Vincent only blinked once and turned back to his canvas. That guy was even worse when it came to not being afraid than Roka had been. The Master slightly pursed his lips and tried to think of a way to change this attitude. Even someone who wasn't valuing his life usually had something to be afraid of.

But then another thought struck him and he tapped Vincent's shoulder.

"I can look into your memories," he announced happily, but only met a raised eyebrow. Next to him there was a barely contained chuckle to hear.

"You really can't stand anyone not being scared of you, can you?" Roka stood there with folded arms and poked out her tongue at him.

"I know that you are a dangerous man," Vincent stated, his voice calm. "But what is there you could take from me?"

"How about I break your mind and leave you as a pitiful thing without any creativity?" The Master thrust his hands in his pockets and sulked.

A somewhat defeating smirk curved Vincent's lips. "You mean, change nothing at all?"

Roka couldn't help but giggle at that. It was bad that the painter was so depressed and deprived of self worth, but in the current situation it was fun to see him defeating the Master at his own game. He shot her a mean glare.

"My mind is beyond repair since I watched the spiralling dark as a young boy." Vincent spoke it absently while his brush drew a first few streaks on the canvas. "It was beautiful, but never again was I the same afterwards."

A halfway knowing, halfway concerned look got exchanged by his two guests.

"Could it be?" Roka mumbled questioningly.

The Master shrugged and turned around. "Let's find out. Oi, human. Put that painting stuff aside."

"And if I don't?" He smiled vaguely.

"I don't bloody care. Just have to take a look inside your head."

Vincent startled and turned, his face suddenly changed from a mask of calmness to a mixture of curiosity and... fear.

"Ah, there we go." A happy smile crept over the Master's face, turned nasty and mean within a second. "You fear it might not be madness at all, am I right?"


	24. II - Visions

Vincent glared at the Master, observing his evil grin. Fear was plainly written all over the painter's features by now. A terror of what might be truth in his mad world of chaos.

"You are not human, aren't you?" he muttered. "You and that Doctor. I knew it the first second."

"Vincent..." Roka stepped next to the Master, and although she didn't like the Time Lord's motives, it probably wasn't a bad idea to take a look inside the painter's head. "You might have seen something no human is supposed to ever lay eyes on. And if that is the case..."

"You can't heal me!" he shouted and took a quick step back. "Don't you ever dare, you abominations! Demons, or what you might be!"

The Master burst out laughing at that, the grin only widening, but when he tossed a quick look in Roka's direction he dropped it, be it only a little.

"Surprising as it might be, but I'm not going to harm you. Unsurprisingly I'm also not planning to heal anything." He stepped closer to Vincent and hit his flailing arms away. His eyes bore into the painter's, reaching out for his struggling mind. His will was astonishingly strong, but in the end the Master could feel the resistance falter. "I will take a look and you will let me. Open your mind. Show me what you've seen."

The last strands of resistance faded, the painter winced and let out a defiant small noise, before he went into a trance. But before the Master got to work, Roka tugged at him.

"I want to see it too," she stated quietly, her eyes wearing a shimmer of insatiable curiosity.

"And there they call _me_ the mad one." He shook his head. "If he saw what I think he saw... even a memory of it could drive you crazy."

"Yeeeah..." She waved his words away. "But you'd shield me from it, right?" A little, adventurous smile curved her lips. "Right?"

Dammit! Why couldn't he resist this stupid smile? She _was_ right of course. There was no actual danger for her. Not permanently anyway. But that wasn't the reason he gave in to the plea. It was the fact that she was willing to let him into her mind as if it was nothing. As if... she trusted him.

Without thinking about it any further he stretched out his hands and enclosed Roka's head between his fingers, rested his forehead against hers.

"Besides... You shouldn't have to go there alone," she uttered, the smile now warm.

Perplex he blinked at her, and once again Roka had to remind herself that he wasn't a man who accepted help willingly, who wasn't even used to get a hand stretched out towards him. But now she knew. Knew he had not abandoned her, knew what he had done to save her from vanishing from existence...

She barely felt how his mind slipped into hers, the familiar tingling sensation at the top of her head was faint and almost gentle. She could feel his presence there, a strong beacon, like arms wrapped around her very being.

"It's only a partial connection," he eventually said and smirked. "No need for anything risky this time, right?"

Roka nodded and then braced herself for what they might see in Vincent's mind, when the Master turned towards him. The painter was still standing there like in trance, numbly staring at the night sky with cloudy eyes.

Like before, the Master touched his temples, concentrated. Roka shut her eyes, too, and waited, standing close. It didn't take long and there were faint images that got stronger by the second. Smells and colours and noises filled the blackness in Roka's mind, flew into her consciousness like a stream of water.

_Two boys were running through a wide wheat field, laughing and chasing each other. The sun burned down at them, hot and merciless, but they didn't even notice. Vincent and his brother ran on and on, sometimes catching the other, sometimes getting lost between the gold that waved around them in a soft breeze._

_They barely recognized the wind picking up with time. Only when tiredness finally caught up did they cast a look into the sky, seeing the dark clouds hanging above their heads. The brother tugged at Vincent's shirt, begged to go back home before the storm could hit them._

_But Vincent had no intention to do so. Fascinated he glared at the clouds and the eerie weird light their presence produced all around. It was beautiful in its own, unspeakable way. Impossible to put into words known by humans. But he would remember how it had looked, and maybe, one day, be able to somehow show this beauty to others._

_A low rumble rolled as a first wave of thunder over the fields. Static crackled through the air and the wheat that was rubbing against itself in the wind. His brother was gone, fled homewards to hide behind mother as he always did in a storm. But not Vincent. He loved to be outside and just watch._

_Watch the sky as it suddenly was alight with bursting of alien green flames the boy had never seen before, a roaring scream of colour and light that got swirled and tossed through the air before it shot to the ground and crashed into the field not too far away._

_Wide eyed, fascinated, and also a little scared Vincent froze for a second and then ran. Smoke was rising into the air, leading him quickly to where the object had crashed. There it was, lying in a pan of pushed aside earth._

_It was a perfectly round sphere of metal his own size, black in colour, but still somehow filled with a greenish glow. The boy stepped closer, too fascinated by the sight to feel fear any longer. His hand reached out on his own to touch the alien surface of the sphere in front of him, feeling the cold, smooth material beneath his fingertips, the light vibration that ran through the object, the ground and now also through himself._

_He could no longer take his hand away, unable to move, unwilling to make this small decision. The sphere moved in itself, twisted and bent without ever moving until a red eye without a pupil glared at him, then faded and left nothing but a hole._

_A rift in time and space._

_And Vincent looked inside and _saw_._

_All of time and space at once, bending, swirling, dancing, glowing, singing in a thousand voices._

_Stars._

_There were so many stars, or were they something else entirely? The souls of long gone lives? Desperate candles burning in frost covered windows? Swirls and patterns and voices and noises._

_And drums..._

_Calling from the end of time, begging, pleading, whispering to be let in, moulding with his mind, becoming one with every part of his existence, swallowing, taking, holding breaking. Blood, so much blood. The dead body of a child in his arms, a laugh in his throat, insanity washing his mind away and leaving nothing there but the never ending rhythm of four beats. Always... always... always...._

"No more," a voice whispered, "They can harm you no longer, Master."

Silence once again washed over him and with that also over Roka's mind. Her head felt dizzy, her stomach sick, but she knew she had to stay conscious for a little while longer, even though every atom of her very being rebelled at the mere thought of even staying alive.

Warmth engulfed Roka all of a sudden, shielding her mind from the influence of the untempered schism. It still hurt, in a way she couldn't even put into words. But she would not go insane or get damaged. Not as long as the Master was with her, that he would make sure of. This thought ran through her mind and his presence got stronger, like a soft blanket.

"Told you it's insane," the Master muttered smiling. "Satisfied?"

Roka simpered up at him tiredly. "Absolutely. It's beautiful."

"Yeah. It is."

The Master held her as consciousness slowly faded and she sunk together against him in exhaustion. A minor effect to what could have happened to her mind, had he not shielded her. He looked at Vincent, who slowly found to himself again. No wonder this man was able to see things other people couldn't. But instead of going truly insane he had found a way to ban these things onto paper and create the most beautiful art with them.

Truly remarkable... for a human.

Roka's sleep was dreamless in some way, however filled with thousands of swirling images and sounds and other sensual impressions. So many that even her augmented brain could impossibly cope and therefore trapped her inside the world of unconsciousness for far longer than she had ever slept in her life.

Hours - or days? - later she finally awoke. There was a dull but painless throbbing in her head that slowly vanished the more she regained her senses. Roka wouldn't move, somewhat afraid she might have to throw up if she did. Only her eyes opened, allowing her a look into the room.

The fireplace was alight and no sun shone through the dirty windows. Only the sounds of the crackling fire and that of an occasionally turning page was to hear. The later came from a bit next to her and she saw the Master sitting on a small chair, sometimes taking a puff from an old, longish pipe, the stolen reading glasses on his nose and his eyes glued to the pages of a book.

The whole picture was strangely soothing and at the same time so unfitting for the man who sat there. It actually was more a picture one would await to see with the Doctor in, but certainly not with the usually so chaotic and restless renegade of a Time Lord.

For a few minutes Roka only watched the scene and felt a calming warmth spreading in her chest. All the images from the untempered schism had vanished from her mind by now, had left nothing but a sweet aftertaste of possibility. It had been so tempting to take a look. But the main reason she had ventured there with the Master was because she had wanted to prevent him from getting lost. She had heard the drums in there, had felt how Vincent's memories had suddenly been replaced by the Master's. Had she not been there... would he have been able to pull himself out of it?

Roka had no answer and knew she would not get one from him. But she had made a promise, and she was determined to keep it, which included to keep him sane and... safe? Yeah... ridiculous as the thought might seemed at first glance, she had somewhat also become his protector. And if only mostly from himself.

The Master lifted his head and slowly turned it towards her, a smile curving his lips when he noted her to be awake. He closed the book and placed it together with the pipe and the glasses on the table next to him.

"You've only been gone for half a day," he explained, the look in his eyes turning mischievous. "Had sweet dreams? Was it worth the risk?"

Roka sat up and nodded, deciding to exclude him from her previous train of thoughts. "I kinda wish you hadn't shielded me though," she admitted and gave him an apologetic smile. "I know, I know... probably would have killed me. Or worse. But... the curiosity, you know?"

He chuckled. "Yeah, all too well."

"What's with Vincent?"

"He's fine." The Master cast a look to the other room. "He can't remember anything after he touched that sphere. And it's not there anymore. The Doctor went to check on that. Man... he wasn't happy about what I did." Again he chuckled mischievously.

"No, I'm certainly not," the Doctor tossed in as he stepped into the room with a sour look on his face. "Also not that you put Roka in danger. That was completely unnecessary."

"Shut it, Doctor. It was her idea." The Master held up his hands in mock defence and laughed.

Roka nodded and the Doctor groaned exasperated.

"You two are like toddlers!" he complained. "You can't just run around and do whatever stupid thing pops into your head!"

"You have to tell," Roka retorted sarcastically.

"You know how I mean that!"

"Actually... nope," she went on. "It's not as if you would never bring any of your companions into trouble. And very willingly often. And in a lot more dangerous situations at that. Not to mention-"

"Fine, fine! You win this. This once! And only because nothing happened to anyone." Pouting and scowling the Doctor rushed out of the room and went to look after Vincent.

Roka exchanged a look with the Master and both started to laugh quietly. It was such a weird situation altogether. For a moment she was tempted to pat the mattress next to her, because she wanted to simply lean on his shoulder and dream a little longer. But she stopped mid movement and got to her feet instead. Something still kept her from letting the Master too close to her, although she had no idea what exactly it was.

No, that was a lie. She knew it well.

It was fear.

After that incident Vincent refused to even brush what the Master had done and did his best to avoid the Time Lord.

At first.

But then, half a day later, the painter went outside, sat on a wooden bench next to the Master and watched as his alien visitor swung the brush on his own.

"Remarkable," Vincent said and meant it. "It's as if you'd capture reality itself."

The Master took a step back and cast a look at the canvas. It showed a slightly ruffled crow next to an apple. And yes, it very much looked like a photo.

And the Master hated it.

"You don't like that, right?" Vincent remarked insightful in his calm, almost dreamy tone. "It bothers you, doesn't it?"

"Get lost," the Master grumbled and tossed the brush onto the table, where it splashed a little colour around.

"Alright. But first tell me... You create a thing like this." He waved towards the picture. "But then you want to know how I manage to paint the crooked, weird things I do?"

With a deep frown the Master crossed his arms and was very tempted to simply storm off. What in the universe would any human be able to teach him? And there it didn't matter that the man had looked into time.

And had survived.

And had found a way to turn his madness into art.

He sighed loudly and irritated, unfolded his arms and sat next to Vincent on the bench. His eyes rose towards the morning sky, chasing a bird. Then he shook his head.

"Imagine you would live for a thousand years, hum... Vincent." He didn't take his eyes off the sky. "You travel through all of time and space and sometimes you stop to banish some of the things you saw onto paper. Because they are fascinating. Because, even though you think you've seen everything already, there is still something out there that is able to amaze you."

And then the drums had become so loud that he hadn't been able to sit still for long. They had driven him to constantly move forward, always searching for distraction and chaos to drown out the noise in his head. Only to hold on to sanity for just a little while longer.

"If you practise a skill long enough, you become good at it, regardless of talent or not. I can't even tell what it is in my case. Probably doesn't matter." Still the painter stayed silent, but his look told that he was listening, so the Master felt compelled to continue. "But all I can do is plainly copy whatever I see. That's... not what anyone could call art, is it? I can't... create anything truly new."

He could only destroy what was there already. But that he kept to himself.

Finally Vincent spoke, and it sounded as if he was putting each word together with much care.

"I think... it is an art in itself to be able to... see." There was a longer pause, before he continued, propping his chin on folded hands. "So many people alter reality to their liking. They refuse to accept what is actually there. They don't even notice it. The beauty of a ray shining through clouds, the swarms of leafs sailing through the air in autumn, the dance of snowflakes in a still winter night. They walk past these things. Unaware and ever so lost in what they think reality is supposed to look like."

The Master snorted and nodded agreeing. "Yah, that they do. Even the Doctor does. Not always, but often."

"And you don't." Vincent smiled a little and lifted his head to the sky. "You see every so small detail."

A fact that had always allowed him to craft his wonderfully complex plans. Some might call them unnecessary, but every detail in them usually was well thought through and crafted with care. And as long as the Doctor didn't poke his nose into them, they usually tended to be extremely successful.

And maybe a little boring. Without someone to stir a little trouble in his plans it was no challenge after all.

"I'm not sure I'm the right one to give advice to a man who is a thousand years old and travelled all of time and space," Vincent spoke forth while he got to his feet. "But I think, what might help, is a little chaos. A drop of madness, if you so will." He grinned a bit painfully and turned away. "Twist and bend reality, break whatever it is you see and then paint what remains of it."

The Master stayed in the garden for another while and contemplated these words. Taking advice from a human... how low had he gotten? But, then again, chaos was something he definitely did have talent for. And with the Doctor around there certainly was enough stuff breaking almost on its own all the time.

And right now... even though he despised the admission... he did have fun. Time would come for him to move on and do his own thing again. Maybe sooner, maybe later. But it could wait.

_He_ could wait. Because he was incredibly patient. Because he experienced life in a way that had been closed off for him until now. Because there were people around, who plainly accepted him among them, despite knowing who he was. Because after all the centuries that had passed between the academy and today...

The Master sighed deeply and glanced up at the sky, a tiny smile on his lips.

Because deep in his hearts he was happy to have his friend back.


	25. II - Different angles

The next day Vincent finally went out to paint the church. Happy and fidgety as ever the Doctor rushed ahead, jumped around and babbled on and on and on without ever taking a break.

Amy was with him, constantly glued to the painter's side though. The two of them went surprisingly well together. Not at least because of Vincent's constant and blunt flirting that seemed to flatter the red haired human quite a lot, even though she never gave into it.

Watching someone do a complete painting, though, turned out to be one of the most boring things the Doctor ever had to endure.

He still wasn't completely sure if Amy had forgotten about Rory entirely. It often seemed as if she had short moments where she remembered something. And even if it was only a feeling, a word, a humming melody in the air... it was still enough.

The Master had been wrong, the Doctor decided. Even when it was painful to witness a loved person die, everyone still deserved the _right_ to remember. Because if you remembered someone, it meant they were real once. But if no one was able to recall your very existence... than had they ever been real in the first place?

He had to think of Roka and the weird glitch that had plagued most of her life. How must it have felt to be nothing but a ghost? No... not even that. People believed in ghosts. But you can't believe in something you don't remember.

He had to think of what he had heard about the past 150 years. How she had left symbols all over time and space, had altered events and people, had done some incredible things for a human. And all that to leave a trace for the only person, who could prove that she was real. The only one who was ever able to remember her.

And the Master... the very man who refused to let anyone near him, who had ran his whole life from commitment... he, of all people, had suffered the pain of having to kill the person he loved, to save her from vanishing from reality.

The Doctor wondered if he would have done the same, if he would have had the strength to do that. All those times when he had watched companions leave, or even die, he still had kept them in his hearts, and he would do so for however long he would be allowed to live.

But then again... he never did have a choice before.

Watching the Master rip out a piece of reality and put it on a canvas definitely was fascinating to watch, Roka decided. He had stayed back, not in the least willing to get himself killed by some invisible monster, as he had put it. Roka initially had planned to come along, but when she had seen the Time Lord standing in the back yard, eyes glued to the cloudy sky, she had decided to stay too.

"Not running after danger again?" he remarked snarky, when saw her. "And there I thought it was a hobby of yours to risk your life."

"What's your problem?" she asked back a little irritated. "You put me in danger more often than I can count. You throw yourself into it at every opportunity."

The Master answered only with silence and proceeded with his work. It seemed as if he was almost possessed by it, even though Roka had no clue what his aim actually was. After a while she came to the conclusion that he probably was worried about her in a way. That would explain his reaction.

She got out a notebook and sat on a bench nearby. Canvas and brushes had never been her element. With paper and pencil, though, she had become somewhat skilled during the years. And now she captured the Master in front of his painting, deeply in thought and with a look as if everything wrong in the world sat right there before him.

When she looked up from her sketchbook again, the sky had turned almost dark and the Master stood in front of her, head slightly tilted to the side and down to observe her drawing.

"What bothers you?" Roka eventually asked, without looking up. "I can't be of help if you don't tell me."

"And what makes you think, I want any help?" he grumbled and folded his arms.

"Because I know your way of asking for it." She smirked a little at his surprised face. "It was only a few months that we travelled together back then. But I always was a ghost, and that teaches you to observe."

"And you still remember after so many years?" Now his voice was filled with a calm doubt. "Or are those brain bots boosting your memory?"

She smiled a bit sadly and shook her head. "It's just... things I never forgot at all."

So many things had happened, so many wonderful and ugly things. She had been places no human would ever be able to dream of, had done unthinkable things over and over again. And still there had been this one period of time that had never vanished from her mind at all. That time when the two of them had travelled together in the Doctor's stolen TARDIS, trying to run away from a future that would never happen.

"So, what is it you want to actually paint?" she asked and tried to banish those memories from her mind for the moment.

"I don't know." The Master slumped down next to her on the bench and folded his hands in his lap, eyes directed at the slowly appearing stars. Always was he looking at them. "Maybe... I had hoped to find myself in it somehow. Or... rather create it. No, that makes no sense." He sighed and glanced at Roka's sketchbook.

Slowly she began to turn the pages, showing him all the small drawings she had done already. Of him, of Amy and the Doctor... and Rory. There was one crude drawing of two silhouettes, dancing on an asteroid and she hastened to turn the page, but already heard a chuckle.

"So you did like it," the Master remarked smug.

"Maybe a little," she mumbled through her teeth, and couldn't help but smile. "Yeah, alright. I liked it. Probably. I'm not sure about how I actually felt in the very moment. It was all so surreal to me. I never thought I would actually ever see you again and then..."

She felt an arm around her shoulders and glanced up.

"You might be surprised, but I do understand," he said in a slightly mocking, though friendly tone. "I know how it feels to be abandoned by someone who was important to you. I know how it feels to hate someone like that. And how far this hate can reach."

Roka knew he was talking about the Doctor. About the time when he had indeed turned away from the Master because of a false assumption. Only to then flee Gallifrey on his own without saying a word.

"I... think," Roka began and paused, contemplating how to properly put her feelings into words. "Something like that creates a deep wound. And even if it gets stitched... it might take a while to properly heal." She leaned her head against his shoulder and simply enjoyed to be held a little.

"So, I won't find an answer by throwing paint at canvases?" the Master asked, though wearing a somewhat mischievous smile. "Already thought so. But it was worth a try."

"Or maybe you're using the wrong tools. Paint with your deeds, instead with a brush."

"Mhm... that's not too bad of an idea."

Some chattering from nearby tore them out of their calm togetherness. It clearly were Amy and Vincent's voices, sometimes dominated by a comment from the Doctor. Roka shifted away from the Master and stood to stretch a little.

The three rounded a corner and came into sight. Amy immediately rushed to Roka and excitedly told about the events in the church, overwhelming her with information and the sad end the lonely creature had taken. The Doctor helped with the story, embellishing it with his usual word salad.

Only Vincent stood a bit away, watching the trio. Eventually Roka noticed it and snuck away.

"You will leave me now, won't you?" It was more a statement than an actual question, but Vincent obviously saw the answer in Roka's eyes. "That's really a shame. For once in my life someone really liked my art. Either that or you all are great liars."

The others now also approached and the painter waved them over, his face a mixture of sadness and longing.

"I wish I could give something to you all," he said, followed by a deep, resigned sigh. But then his eyes lit up and he flashed a grin towards the Master. "I have no idea how you do it, but you saw into my mind, didn't you?"

"Yeah." The Master shrugged. "I won't apologize."

"No... no." Vincent shook his head. "Can you... show others what you see? I mean... what you see in another mind... I... I wish I could show all of you how the world looks for me."

A short look wandered back and forth between the two Time Lords. The Doctor eventually nodded and then shook his head.

"Yes, well... no... well... it is possible. We can both help. If that is what you like to do. And only if it's just images. Everything else would require a..."

"I think images will be enough, won't it, Vincent?" The Master gave the painter a vicious smile.

He slowly nodded and then rushed towards a hill behind his house all of a sudden. Everyone followed close and at the top he gestured them all to sit down in the grass. They formed a small circle. Amy was next to him, then the Doctor, then Roka and lastly the Master.

"So, how will that work?" Vincent asked excited.

"We need physical contact," the Master explained. "So this ridiculous circle isn't a too bad idea actually." He stretched out his hands to both sides. "The signal from your thoughts will just go around in the circle."

Roka took his stretched out hand and was somewhat surprised that he actually was willing to participate in something like this. She closely watched his face, but there was no sign of his thoughts on it. Maybe he was simply trying to seek out new experiences.

They all closed their eyes and after a few seconds Roka could see the night sky above their heads. But it wasn't how it usually looked like. The colours were so much more vibrant and flew into each other like swirls and waves of gradients. The stars were brighter than the clearest light, but not blindingly. They only shone down upon them with an ethereal radiance, twinkling and melting with all the different shades of blue and purple, the sparse clouds and the colour of the wind.

And it was breathtakingly beautiful.

"Truly," the Doctor muttered. "No one sees the world like you do. And I'm old and have seen a lot, my friend."

The visions faded, hands got released and minds returned to the real world, that suddenly looked bleak and cold in comparison to the kaleidoscope of beauty that it had been a moment before. The Master said nothing, his eyes were only glued to the stars, as they often were, but now Roka saw a new light in them. Like a rekindled flame, burning higher than ever before. And when he glanced at her, she also saw a familiar, slightly mischievous glint in them, that had been absent until now.

It was as if she could literally see how his head was spinning together new plans to take over the universe, and she couldn't help but chuckle a little at that.

Some things certainly would never change about him.

They stayed for one last dinner, but then left with heavy hearts. Vincent hugged especially Amy tightly.

"Too bad you don't want to stay. Our children would have the reddest hair!" he said happily, although it was obvious that he didn't await her to change her mind. "Too bad your heart is already taken."

Amy blinked perplex at him, but before she could really react, the Doctor quickly stepped in, grabbed the painter's hand and squeezed it tightly. "It was a pleasure staying with you, Vincent! It really was," he said, a little bit too cheery and careful to block Amy's sight. "I will always remember this, be assured."

Eventually he let go and stepped back.

"Well, time to leave then," the Master only grumbled with folded arms.

Vincent came over to Roka, who hadn't spoken too much with him during their time here. But he regarded her with a wide smile nonetheless and also hugged her.

"May your way be lit by stars," he said almost ceremoniously. "But remember that home can sometimes be at the place we least want to look at."

She glanced at the man in puzzlement and only nodded, unable to form a fitting response to that.

He turned around and walked past the Master, sending a short look to the side. "You don't need anything from me, traveller. I think what you seek is already in you." He smiled and didn't wait for a response, before he turned away and simply walked back to his house.

"Tch, who does he think he is?" the Master grumbled irritated and folded his arms. "As if I'd needed advice from a human."

"Don't be so harsh on him," Amy tossed in with a smile. "It seemed you, too, liked what he showed us."

"Yeah," Roka seconded and nodded forebodingly. "Give the man some credit. He won't be living for that much longer."

Right as she said it, the faces around her began to drop as they all remembered how Vincent's life would end. Through his own hand, in nothing but a few months.

"Don't... you think, we made somewhat of a change to his state of mind?" Amy asked carefully, the question somewhat directed at everyone at once.

"Oh, it's never that easy." The Doctor sighed.

Roka felt a little guilty for having brought up the subject. She had, like everyone else, seen in what state Vincent was. How his depression was gnawing on him relentlessly. And she knew too well how something like this could destroy one. He reminded her somewhat of how she had been herself. And that not too long ago.

Empty, without any hope or the simplest light to guide her out of an eternal, nameless darkness.

She glanced around her, up at the Master, and felt warm inside. In the end she had found a fragile flame that was all too willing to light her path.

"We'll take him to the museum!" the Master suddenly let out and smashed his fist into his open hand. "Show him how famous his stuff becomes! The he'll be happy, right?"

"Master..." the Doctor started carefully.

But Amy interrupted excitedly. "Yes! Please, Doctor! Let's try it. It _has_ to work!"

Together they went back to Vincent's house. Roka stayed at the Master's side and glanced at him from the side.

"What?" he eventually asked.

"You actively try to save a human life," Roka assessed.

"No, I don't." With a sulky face he turned his head away. "It's just... He is like us. Not like Time Lords, I mean, but..." He shook his head. "That human looked into time and survived it."

"So did I now."

"Yeah, but I shielded you. It wasn't able to actually affect your mind." He waved her words away and huffed. "Even Time Lords can get insane from looking to the schism... apparently."

"You didn't," Roka corrected him with a slight smile. "It-"

"Doesn't matter! He is human! And he is still alive!"

"And his insanity enables him to create wonderful things," Roka completed the thought. "Whilst the drums..."

The Master shot her an angry look, but then his features softened and he stayed behind with Roka, while the Doctor went inside the house with Amy.

"I'd still be the same person. With or without the drums. Don't try and think I could have been a good man without them." He poked her chest, a bit harder than necessary.

"No." Roka smirked and pushed his hand. "Not a chance."

"Exactly!" he seconded proudly.

She chuckled quietly, shook her head at that and muttered more to herself, "Wouldn't want you any other way"

Before he could respond, the others already came out of the house, dragging Vincent along with them. He was visibly reluctant to follow, uncertain and a bit fearful of what might lie ahead. But as soon as he entered the TARDIS his eyes lit up like that of a child and he ran around, excitedly touching and poking everything. The Doctor had a hard time keeping him away from the important bits and eventually shoved the painter into one of the jump seats.

"Hold on tight!" he demanded and got the time machine moving.

The flight was bumpy and wild, but, for once, the Master refrained from impatiently knocking over the stabilizers. At the end Vincent bumped into Amy and clasped her tightly, and also smiling. She giggled at that and pushed him softly away, then took his hand and lead him outside.

"Come, you want to see this."

"Do I?"

They rushed through the museum, eager to get to the important part. A task which was surprisingly hard, because Vincent was adamant on stopping at everything he deemed interesting. And there was a lot of it!

"Oh, look at all those amazing things!" he called out eventually. "It's absolutely fantastic. Truly a place for the greatest artists to come together."

"Yes... yes, Vincent, indeed," the Doctor seconded smilingly. "But come. You haven't met the greatest and most beloved of them all."

"Ha! I'm not even sure I want to see." The painter scratched his head and thrust his hands in his pockets. "I'll probably never touch a brush again after seeing their paintings."

"Ah, I wouldn't be so sure about that."

The Doctor pushed against Vincent's back to make him move and eventually they reached the part, where all of the paintings resided that had survived time. In the back they could hear the voice of the curator, his voice echoing through the crowd of listeners.

Vincent startled and turned around, his eyes widening in disbelieve and shock and amazement, all at once. Carefully, as if all of this could only be a strange daydream, he approached one of his own paintings and stretched out a hand as if to touch it. The finger stopped mere inches away from the paper, trembling, and then sank down again.

"It's heartsbreaking, isn't?" the Master remarked towards Roka, but couldn't quite banish from his voice that his words held a hint of truth.

Meanwhile the Doctor had dragged over the curator and was complimenting his bowtie again. The man seemed visibly pleased at that and sked what the Doctor might need him for.

"Oh, I just wondered, between you and me, in a hundred words, where do you think Van Gogh rates in the history of art?"

Vincent turned around and glared at the two, his eyes an unreadable depth of swirling emotions as he listened. The curator coughed and straightened, clearly in his element now.

"Well, big question, but to me, Van Gogh is the finest painter of them all. Certainly, the most popular great painter of all time. The most beloved. His command of colour, the most magnificent. He transformed the pain of his tormented life into ecstatic beauty. Pain is easy to portray, but to use your passion and pain to portray the ecstasy and joy and magnificence of our world. No one had ever done it before. Perhaps no one ever will again." He stopped for a moment and took a breath, smiling contently. "To my mind, that strange, wild man who roamed the fields of Provence was not only the world's greatest artist, but also one of the greatest men who ever lived."

He didn't notice. No one did at first, too moved by those words. But as they turned around to Vincent they all saw the tears on his face, his mouth speechlessly opened and stammering inaudible words to himself.

The Doctor startled and rushed to the painter. "Vincent. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. Is it too much?"

" They are tears of joy. Thank you, sir. Thank you." The words were not directed at the Time Lord, but at the curator, whom he now proceeded to kiss on both cheeks, eyes still filled with water. "Thank you so much. You have not the slightest idea-"

He couldn't end the sentence, getting pulled away by the Master, while the curator muttered a confused ' You're welcome'.

"Careful," the Master muttered. "No one must know who you are."

"Yes... yes, of course." Vincent nodded, sniveled and wiped the tears away. "Oh,. but you have no idea... No idea at all. No one ever... not even once... liked a single of my paintings. And to know-" He stopped and took some deep breaths.

"Well... maybe humans aren't that stupid after all. At least not all of them," the Master murmured into his beard and shot a mean look in Roka's direction when he saw her amused smirk.

After this Vincent wanted to leave. It was too much to bear, as he stated outside, breathing some vapour into the cold air. He stayed silent on their way back, not even running around in the TARDIS this time. And only when they stepped outside in front of his house, did he open his mouth again.

"This changes everything. I'll step out tomorrow with my easel on my back a different man. I still can't believe that one of the haystacks was in the museum. How embarrassing." He hurled around and smiled widely. "Oh, I promise to all of you, I will make the world remember Vincent Van Gough! I'll leave them so many paintings, they won't even fit into the whole museum!"

"It was an honour, Vincent," the Doctor said. "I certainly won't ever forget you. I'm sure none of us will."

The painter laughed happily and lastly winked at Amy. "So... marriage is out of the question?"

"Yeah... I'm not really the marrying type." She chuckled. "And I have to take care of my boys here. And my little sis."

Roka huffed and the Master folded his arms in protest, while Doctor seemed unfazed by being called 'her boy'. Vincent though only laughed and stormed into his house, only once turning back around to hold up his hands to his mouth.

"Good bye!" He called out, and then vanished for good.

Not all stories end well. The time travellers had to learn it the hard way when they returned to the museum, only to find that Vincent's future hadn't changed. The only one who didn't seemed too surprised was the Doctor.

Roka was only sad, Amy outright devastated , and the Master... he didn't say a single word. And that alone was unusual. Instead he stepped away, marched along the pictures and looked at each and everyone so thoroughly as if to memorize every stroke and every speck of colour. On some he halted, and a small smile played on his lips for a moment. They had small inscriptions scribbled in corners of vases or desks.

One simply said: _For Amy_.

Another one stated: _For the only Doctor that ever helped_.

And a third one had a longer one, saying: _A master of art is one who protects the ghost of his madness._

The Master chuckled. For a human that man certainly had quite the observation gift. He turned around and watched the Doctor consoling Amy. For the longest part of his life, he had hated this man deeply, had wished for him to suffer as much as he himself had. But now that the drums were gone, now that the Doctor had accepted him as a companion of sorts... He snorted and shook his head. What a ridiculous situation. Never ever would he have expected this turn of events.

But the Doctor could prove to be the key to finding out, who he, the Master, truly wanted to be. A long time ago he had decided to be a 'best enemy', and he had loved that role. Maybe he would go back to it one day. Certainly. It was too much fun. But for now he would stay and see how things would unfold.

Once more he glanced at the words on the canvas and smiled a little.

Yeah, indeed. He would protect his little ghost. He would find his own art, created from the remnants of madness and the promise of stars shining bright in the midnight sky.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So... It seems the Master is back on track with all the conquering the universe stuff. ;D
> 
> And now look forward to the next chapter - cause I certainly do - it will be a little bit... different, and I'm super excited to share it with all of you! x3


	26. III - A fairy tale

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, this is a tiny little bit different... but it will all make sense soon enough. Just stick with me and enjoy the ride, cause I very much enjoyed writing this. o(≧∇≦o)

**Act III - A fairy tale  
**

_In which everyone plays a different role, but finds themselves back at the beginning  
_

* * *

"Amelia Pond," he said, weighing the name on his tongue as if to taste every letter of it. "That sounds as if it's from a fairy tale."

The young girl smiled widely, nodded. She lead the strange man to her room, showed him the crack in her wall, let him listen to voices on the other side. Amelia had no idea what it was that he did, but a few moments later the crack was closed and a smug, albeit sad, smile was on the man's face.

"Hey," she carefully asked. "You have that machine. You came out of that, I saw it."

"Yeah. The whole of time and space is open to me, thanks to her." The smile grew even sadder. "What about it?"

"Can I come with you?" Amelia glared with wide eyes at the nightly visitor, her childish face not showing even the slightest hint of fear.

The stranger looked at her for a long moment, finding her demeanour quite peculiar. But he only shook his head and simply left without another word.

A name like from a fairy tale.

And this is how it goes:

Once upon a time there was a girl. She lived in a big house with her family. Her mother, her father, and her aunt came visiting them every so often. It was a good time and a great place to grow up.

But the girl named Amelia was not normal.

She had an imaginary friend, whom she called the raggedy doctor. This figure accompanied her throughout her whole life, and no psychiatrist or friend or family member could ever convince her that he wasn't real.

But maybe they were right. Truth be told, Amelia had never actually _seen_ him. Not in reality, that is. He was like an afterimage, a fading dream, a reverie.

Maybe she only held onto that image because she was used to strange things. Maybe it was because of another person that shouldn't exist and did anyway.

Ever since that night so long ago, there was this man. He never told her his name, but, as soon as everyone else was sound asleep, he often sat there on her windowsill. Like Peter Pan. Only that he was no child, nor did he have pointy ears.

Never did he enter her room, never did he take tea or biscuits from her. But the stranger told Amelia stories. And he had so many of them.

It were stories of the countless stars out in the sky, of creatures, horrifying and fascinating and beautiful. He told her of places that were so strange that she could hardly imagine them. He told her of wars and of crimes and of other things that were certainly not meant for a child's ears.

But Amelia didn't care. She loved to listen to these stories. And deep down in her little heart she believed them to be true. There was just something about them and about the man that made it impossible to think otherwise.

Some days he appeared to be incredibly happy, chatting with a smile and laughing a lot about the things he told her. But there were other days as well. Days, where he barely spoke a word, where he didn't want her to make light so he could hide in the shadows.

Only once had Amelia been able to take a peek at him during one of those times. And he had been injured, badly. His clothes shred and blood staining their remains. His eyes had gotten wide in what might have been fear, when he realized that she had seen it.

"Will you be alright?" Amelia asked carefully, and he nodded. It was then that she decided to finally ask the one question that had always been burning on her tongue. "Why do you always visit me?" And a bit quieter she added, "And why today? You should see a doctor."

The man winced at that, then looked confused, as if he had no idea why he had reacted like that.

"I don't know," he whispered. "It makes no sense to me either. I don't even like humans."

"But you like _me_?"

"I... don't know." He shook his head. "There is something missing. Something that should be there, but isn't. And when I'm here... it feels as if I might remember."

Amelia trod carefully closer and peered up at the man. In a few years she would call him handsome, with his blond, almost white hair, the goatee, the sad, hazel brown eyes and his favour for black clothes.

She stretched out her hands and took one of his into hers.

"Come. I can get Papa's first aid kit."

His eyes bore into hers, confused, hurt and so incredibly sad. With a lot more care than necessary he took his hand back and swallowed.

"I'm only a dream," he said, his voice deep and almost commanding. "I'm as real as your raggedy doctor. Whoever that might be."

"No, that's a lie." Amelia stemmed her fists into her hips. "I can see and touch you. If anyone is real at all then it's you, Mister."

A pained smile curved the man's lips. "I'm a bad person, you know that?" Somehow it sounded as if he was proud of this fact. "I did so many things that would make you hate me."

Amelia believed him. Lot's of his stories had hinted at these things, at a buried cruelty inside him, that he, however, hid from her.

But she wasn't afraid. To her he was nice.

"I'll be alright," the man assured. "And... if I might, I'll come back and tell you more. I see so many things each and every day. Sometimes it's years until we meet again. But for you it was only a day." His eyes closed and the same sad smile from before was on his face again. "No matter how far I run or where I search, there is no place closer to an answer than here."

"Okay," Amelia said nonchalantly. "I don't get what it is about me. But I like your stories."

The stranger looked up and nodded, then left for the night.

It was almost a year before he came back. Amelia had feared he really might be only a dream, like her doctor. But he wasn't. And when she ran to the window to open it, she completely forgot that she wasn't alone in her room this night.

"Hello, Amelia," the traveller greeted happily and took his place on the windowsill. "You grew, didn't you?"

"Yeah, children my age tend to do that," she answered sassily.

Both of them got aware of the third person the same moment. Amelia squeaked with her hands covering her mouth and let her eyes rush between her friend and the stranger, who glared at the second girl.

"Oh. I have a guest sleep over tonight." Amelia took down her hands.

"Hey!" the other girl chirped. "Is that the man you told me of?" She flung away the blanked and ran to the window to stretch out a hand. "Hello, I'm Geneviere Arkerson. But everyone calls me Gin!"

Perplex the man took the small hand and shook it slightly. His eyes wandered over the girl, her short, dishwater blond hair, the bright green eyes. A through and through unremarkable appearance. Only the fact that she didn't seemed to be afraid of him at all astonished him a little. But then again it was no wonder Amelia would befriend someone like that.

And then he felt it. The same weird sensation he always had around the red-haired child. As if there was something tingling inside his mind, waiting to burst to the surface, but with that second child it was even stronger than it had ever been with Amelia.

The stranger jumped from the windowsill and into the room, grabbed the blond girl by her arm and drew her close to glare into her eyes.

"Who the hell are you?" he demanded.

"Ooow! Let me go!" Gin whimpered, then swiftly stomped on his foot.

It didn't have the intended effect, but the stranger let go of her anyway when he noticed Amelia's shocked face.

"Gin's a friend," she told. "We go to the same school and she lives only a few streets away. That's all, really."

He shot a venomous glare at the blond girl, inwardly blaming her for everything that was missing from his mind. It was stupid, and he knew it perfectly well. But he just couldn't help.

From then on the visits got less and less frequent. The older Amelia got, the more it dawned on her how weird it actually was to have a stranger visit her in the night so often, even though he had never harmed her.

What Amelia didn't know was that the traveller now visited another child. He never sat on her windowsill though, and never told any stories. He only watched from the outside and wondered why the effect was so much stronger with this human. It could only mean she was connected to whatever was missing from his memory.

But, weirdly enough, something kept him from going too close. So he watched from the distance. Watched how the girl grew up with her younger brother, her mother, who seemed a bit distanced, with her father, who laughed a lot and looked so familiar to someone the stranger couldn't remember.

When the girl was maybe twelve he observed an occurrence where a bunch of older kids gathered to throw stones at her, steal her backpack and hit with fists. Gin fought hard. She was brave and fast. But they were many and they did not like that she was a friend of Amelia. The weird kid was not supposed to have friends. But Gin had never cared about that.

Now she sat on the street, nose bleeding, knees skinned, but still holding back the tears. Only one stubbornly rolled down her dirty face and she wiped it away angrily.

The stranger had decided to only watch, but somehow the sight made him feel uneasy. He made sure no one was around, hastened over and dropped to his heels in front of her. Only then did Gin flinch away and her eyes widened surprised when she recognized him.

"I can get you some revenge, if you want me to," the traveller offered. "They'd deserve it."

With every word he spoke the strange feeling grew stronger. _He should remember! _His whole being was screaming at him.

But he couldn't.

A chuckle made him look up and into a dirt and tears smeared face. This girl there was actually smiling widely at him, mischief in her bright green eyes.

"I'm the one who got beat up, but you're the one who looks as if the world went down." She giggled again as if this was the funniest thing that had ever happened to her. At the same time tears rolled down her cheeks, leaving traces in the dirt. "Ooow, ow," she whimpered in between laughs. "Ooow, damn, everything's hurting."

"Then why the heck are you laughing like an idiot?"

"I don't know. Honestly, I really don't." Gin took a deep breath and calmed down. She shook her head and glared at the man in front of her. "I just feel happy right now. It makes no sense, does it?"

"No... it doesn't. But nothing seems to make sense at all."

The girl lifted herself up from the ground and reached a hand down to the stranger. "Why were you visiting Amelia so often? And why did you stop?"

The man looked at the hand, ignored it and rose to his feet.

"That's none of your business," he grumbled and turned away.

He didn't get far, a tug on his coat holding him back.

"I think it is." It was strange how this dirty face could look so serious and as if in charge. "It feels weird to be around you. And Amy is my friend. I will protect her."

"Will you now?" An amused twinkle wandered into the travellers eyes, and he decided to give it a try. "Alright. Get cleaned and bandaged and all that." He pointed at her wounds. "I'll visit when the others sleep."

"Okay. See ya!" The girl waved as if this meeting was totally normal and stormed away to collect her backpack from a bush.

He waited on the windowsill when Gin entered her room. How he had gotten inside was a mystery, but she didn't bother to ask. Instead she trod over and pushed a cup of hot chocolate into his hands. In opposite to Amelia she didn't leave him a choice in that regard. Wordlessly she stepped to her desk and took her own mug, before she smiled at the man.

"So... first things first. What's your name?"

"What makes you think I would tell?"

Gin shrugged. "Because if you don't tell me I'm going to call you dick-face."

The man laughed out loud and almost spilled the contents of his cup. "Well, why not. Call me... uh... Emil Keller."

The girl cocked an eyebrow and took a sip from her chocolate. "Sounds fake. But okay, better than nothing. So, tell me, Emil, who are you?"

"Boooring," he drawled. "At least ask interesting questions if you have to probe me."

Gin nodded and thought for a moment, before she asked, "Why do I feel weird around you? It' as if... as if I knew you. But that's not possible, right?"

"I don't know," Emil admitted. "There is something missing from my mind. It always has. But when I was around Amelia it felt as if I might remember. It's a lot stronger with you."

"It always has?" Gin repeated carefully.

"Yah... makes no sense, right? It's as if I grew up with a gap in my head." He stared up to the ceiling and clutched the warm mug. "Whenever I turned around I was convinced there was supposed to be someone standing next to me. And later it was so... boring. Conquering planet after planet, doing whatever I wanted. But no one there to... I don't know... stop me? Fight me? _Try_ at least?" He shrugged. "I ran from a noise in my head. I did some pretty horrible things. Not regretting anything, but it still felt... _off_ that no one was there to do something about it."

"Ha! So you're a bad guy," Gin stated with a smirk. "What's with that noise you ran from?"

"Gone. My people tried to... long story. One day I was captured and then forced to build a machine. Then I learned it were my own people who tortured me and I decided to let them suffer for that. Destroyed the machine, sent my home planet back to hell... well... long story. But that's all."

"I see..." Gin sighed and glared into her mug, strangely unfazed by the prospect of her opponent being not from earth. "But if you always felt that way it can't be me whom you forgot. Well... in case your story is true at least. I'm rather sure I didn't grow up on your planet."

Emil grumbled something inaudible and placed his empty mug on the floor. Never did he leave the window, as if he was afraid, entering the room further might get him stuck.

"What now though?" Gin glared at him, let her eyes wander over his appearance. "Seems like you also don't age like us, seeing you look the same as years ago."

"Ah... no. First of all, I'm a time traveller. What is years for you could be minutes for me. But my kind also ages a lot slower."

"If you say so. But what are your plans? Hanging around me and Amy just because you hope to solve this puzzle?"

"I don't know." He shrugged and crossed his arms over his chest. "It's the only clue I ever got."

Emil stopped visiting Amelia - or Amy, as she called herself now. But therefore he came to Gin almost every evening. She had demanded to hear about his travels, about the universe and its wonders. And Emil found himself enjoying it so much more all of a sudden. Now it weren't only fairy tales, it were true events, and he saw that Gin believed them all. He also saw that she never judged his behaviour, no matter how bad it had been. Here and there she only raised an eyebrow or made a face as if to say, _my, you really need another hobby_.

But she never scolded him, never tried to convince him to act less violent. And therefore he stopped on his own. Not entirely. But it was suddenly less fun to be all mean and nasty, and he was more on the lookout for really intriguing things he could then tell.

Time passed. Gin was sixteen now, but never grew tired of Emil's stories. Only one evening he waited in vain. She never entered her room, but also hadn't told him she would sleep somewhere else, as she normally would.

He waited almost the whole night and shot up when the door finally opened. Gin entered slowly and dropped onto her bed immediately. And then he heard sobs.

For the first time since he had started his visits, Emil moved from the windowsill and sat next to Gin on the bed. She shot up surprised, her tear swollen eyes wide. And before he could react, she had already flung both arms around his neck and buried her face in his shirt.

"What happened?" he asked carefully, his voice unfamiliarly soft, while he hesitantly wrapped his own arms around her slender frame to hold her tight.

"Josh... he... he's gone," Gin sobbed. "The police questioned us all. We were all suspects. But... but..." She took a deep breath and retreated a little. "I've done nothing," she whispered. "I would never..."

"I know," he assured softly and wiped some tears away with his finger.

He hadn't thought about it for a long time, not even for a second. But now that he was so close to her, the weird feeling grew a lot stronger. As is the missing piece would snap into place at every moment. And it wasn't only that, he realized confused. His hearts suddenly beat so much faster when he looked at her. How weird.

He stayed with her, sitting on the bed and holding her hand, while Gin slipped in and out of nightmares. Eventually he tenderly pressed his thumbs against her temples, whispered some words she never remembered and made her sleep properly for the rest of the night.

The boy was never found, the investigation dropped. Life returned to normal and somehow also didn't. There is no such thing as normal when a child goes missing. Gin and her parents learned that the hard way, although they all did their best to try.

The only thing that prevented Gin from going nuts during the first weeks were Emil's visits. Ever since that night she looked forward to see him a lot more than ever before. Maybe because he had been with her to chase away the nightmares. Maybe because in this short moment, when he had hugged her so firmly, something she couldn't name had changed. It had been the only time he had ever left his spot at the window.

And from then on he never did it again.


	27. III - Realities colliding

Time passed. Months went by, a year and another one, and maybe a little longer. The visits continued, albeit not that often. The man who called himself Emil was travelling a lot more now, unsure why he tried to avoid seeing the human girl.

But every now and then he had to return. He just couldn't help it.

This time it was autumn. Leaves covered the ground in a colourful blanket. He strolled through a park and stopped dead in his tracks when he spotted Gin. She stood under a tree and glared up to the sky, lost in thoughts, her eyes somewhat sad and her breath evaporating in the cold air.

The scenery was calm, almost magical, and it reminded him of the loneliness he held in his own two hearts.

When Gin heard his approaching steps she spun around and her eyes widened in disbelieve at his sight.

"What?" he mocked smiling, "you think I can only exist on windowsills?"

"You were gone for over a year!" she let out and then sighed. "Did you even notice? Or was it just a minute for you?"

"Oh... was I?" He scratched his beard in thought. "Weird. I could swear I've set the coordinates earlier. But here I am!" He stretched out his arms with a wide grin. "Don't tell me, you miss-"

He never got the chance to finish his sentence. Gin was in front of him in an instant and wrapped both arms around his torso. Startled by her reaction he glared down at her head, and again he felt his heartbeat speed up unnaturally, as it always did around her lately. Without thinking about it he hugged her back and held her close, wondering why in the universe it made him feel so at ease.

"Hey..." she mumbled against him and then suddenly shifted in his arms to place an ear to his chest. "That's a weird heartbeat."

Emil chuckled. "I've got two of those."

Gin looked up perplex, but smiled. "Oh, heh, that's weird. I like it. You really are an alien, aren't you?"

He chuckled some more and poked out his tongue. "I sure am." The laugh caught in his throat when he looked down into those bright green eyes that were staring at him, this face that had turned from that of a child to that of a woman.

"You grew up," he remarked tonelessly.

"Yah... humans tend to do that," she retorted sarcastically and... blushed a little.

"Then maybe I should stay away from now on," Emil pondered, but found himself hating the thought. "From what I observed, humans don't like strange people. And having an imaginary friend surely is strange, right?" He winked, then snickered meanly. "I also bet your boyfriend wouldn't be so happy about seeing you with a stranger."

"B... boyfriend?" Gin now really flushed bright red and let go of him to turn away. "I don't... have one."

"Girlfriend then?" Emil laughed and poked her with a finger.

Gin slapped his hand away and shot him a mean glare. "Also not! Stop mocking me!"

"Just were under the impression you humans love to rush these thing the moment you come into the right age. Okay, okay, I'll stop." He raised both hands in mock surrender and grinned from ear to ear while taking a precautious step back.

Not without taking in the sight of the now woman that stood before him, his treacherous hearts unwilling to obey every attempt of being forced into a normal rhythm. Gin scowled and he observed her face, that was unremarkable but somehow pretty in its own way. It were her eyes that really captured his attention the most. Like a green flame they were burning, strong and determined. They could see right through all the layers of masks he wore, but without ever judging or rejecting what lay beneath them.

And those green flames were now glued to him as if she desperately wanted to say something.

After a moment she relaxed and smiled shyly. "I've got to run some errands. But... will you tell me a story this evening? I'm still living at the same place."

Emil took a deep breath and shrugged. "Maybe. I've got a universe to conquer. That won't happen on its own."

Gin's face dropped, the light in her eyes seemed to dim not only a little, but almost faded. "Oh. I... understand." Then she laughed a little, but humourlessly. "I became boring, right? For someone that lives so long... a human like me must be really dull to you."

And before he could answer, she already stormed away.

She hadn't expected him to show up. But when he really didn't, it still hurt. She actually had no idea why she was waiting in her room every evening. Amy already grew worried and Gin's parents exchanged questioning looks over the dinner table.

It was luck that she had to study a lot for university. It kept her mind occupied, but she also stayed awake until late into the night oftentimes.

This night was especially nasty. Winter had arrived, the temperatures had dropped quite a bit, but Gin still refused to completely close her window. Mostly because the air in her room got stale rapidly. But also...

There was a shadow rushing over the textbook she had just been reading.

Gin sprang up and glanced around just in time to see someone ducking away from the window. She jumped over, flung it open fully and blindly grabbed the first thing she could reach. Cloth.

"Gotcha!" she called out happily and tore a little to bring Emil into view.

He was actually standing on a tree branch in front of her window, both hands now clutching the window frame. His face wore a mischievous grin when he bent down to her.

"I'm a lot stronger than you. If I want to leave, I-"

Gin grabbed his jacket with both hands and tore at it. "Don't be an idiot," she giggled. "Come in."

She continued to tug at him until he gave up the farce and swiftly climbed inside the room, not leaving his usual spot at the window though.

"Hey, could you maybe help me with that?" Gin asked and pointed at a paper with lots of complicated formulas written all over it. "This stuff is driving me nuts. And I bet human mathematics is easy for you."

"It is indeed." He pushed himself away from the window and came a single step closer. "But I actually only wanted to say goodbye. I think it really is time to leave for good."

"Why?" She let the paper drop onto the table and hid her disappointment by turning her head away.

"Because I'll stir more trouble for you than will be good and..." Emil paused and cocked his head, then laughed to himself. "How weird. I never bothered about making trouble. Quite the opposite."

"Then why do you care now?" she mumbled sadly.

"Because... I completely forgot about the reason I actually came visiting you," he admitted. "It haunted me my whole life, but the past years... I mostly didn't even think about it."

Gin shot straight and approached him. "But that's a good thing, isn't it?"

"Maybe... I don't know." He shrugged. "I just don't want to miss you more than necessary. That's all."

"_Miss_ me? That has to be a lie," she mocked, although her heart was suddenly acting up.

Could it be? Might he still be visiting her for more reasons than only to chase away his boredom?

Both stood now only a few steps apart from each other, their eyes locked in a little staring contest that Emil lost when he started to chuckle.

"Yeah, it was fun coming here. I liked hunting for new stories to tell you."

He said it with a smile on his lips and a twinkle in his gaze, almost as if he was making fun of himself for enjoying his visits so much.

And then it was clear what she had to do. Gin took another step and stopped so close in front of him that they almost touched. Her blazing green eyes asked the question before her mouth could, but she did anyway.

"Take me with you. Why stories when I can see all of what you told me about with my own eyes?"

Emil swallowed and his hand reached out to cup the side of her face with his palm. The touch sent a tingling through her mind, reminded her of something that never was and that she could not know, nor name.

"It's dangerous. And you humans are so fragile. What if you break?"

"I won't," she promised with a smile. "I might die one day, sure, but then I will have lived the best life of all. And..." She stopped and hesitantly placed her hand over his hearts, fingers spread out and then curling above the warm beating rhythm. "I wouldn't have to say goodbye to you."

Emil swallowed visibly and clutched her hand with his own. Something in his eyes changed. A mask dropped, revealing something dangerous, something ancient and willing to break and burn everything its way. "But I'm a monster. I will harm you. It might even be me who brakes you in the end."

"I don't care."

Gin shook her head, never loosing the focus on his face. She knew what he was showing her was the man he usually was, when he was on his own, and when there was no one to stop him. It wasn't new to her. He had never hidden any details from his stories, never even tried to paint himself as a better person than he was. Gin knew. And it didn't matter at all. The only thing she wanted was to stay with him, to be close and to continue to feel the soothing heartbeat under her palm. She knew he wanted her to be scared, to retreat and to run away, but instead she stayed and stretched a little towards him.

His gaze changed once more, lost the dangerous touch and gained one that was almost desperate. "But I don't want to hurt you, little crow."

She startled. Something weird shot through her, like a memory that wasn't her own but should be, one that belonged to her, but not to... _herself_.

"Why... did you call me that?" she asked perplex.

Emil leaned down to her, his eyes suddenly warm and gentle. "It felt right," was all he offered. He dropped his forehead against hers, their eyes locked, both not able to look anywhere else. "Are you sure? You can't come back, if you leave."

Gin nodded without looking away. "Yeah, I've never been so sure about anything at all. Each time you're gone I miss you so badly it hurts."

Her mouth snapped shut and she looked away. This wasn't a thing she had planned to admit, even though it was the truth.

Her hand over his hearts felt how they sped up, a wild drumming of four beats. Shyly she peeked up again and inched a little closer, leaned against him to feel the warmth of his body. He, who had stayed at as much distance as possible throughout her whole life, who was so much older than she would ever get, who didn't even like humans.

But now he leaned down a little more, his lips hovering above hers as if he feared any closer would wake them both from a long dream. Gin stretched only a tiny little bit, her heart so fast she could feel it pounding in her finger tips. They met, timidly, almost nothing but a breath, but it was enough to break the spell. He closed the remaining distance, moulded their lips together in a gentle, slow kiss. And in that moment everything suddenly made sense. Not with words, nor images or even thoughts at all. But the feeling that had haunted them both for so long now completely swallowed them, a fire of tingling electricity, too much to bear, but still not enough.

He could feel the connection snapping into place, memories bubbling to the surface, images that would finally bring answers to all of his questions. For one single moment... he _remembered_.

His hands wandered down, caressing Gin's shoulders, traced down and rested on her hips so he could hold her tight against him. She got more fierce, pushed herself closer, her scent and warmth wiping away each and every of those newly gained memories, before they could fully surface. He didn't care anymore. Nothing was important and would ever be. Nothing but this very second, this moment and this reality alone.

And he knew, sensed, that she felt the same. He sensed it, because she was in his mind all of a sudden. No, he was in hers. It had simply happened. Not a full bond, not yet, but their thoughts were connected in a way humans would never experience on their own.

It didn't matter. She didn't bother or care, although it was a weird sensation. He had long told her about his psychic abilities, and feeling his very presence in her mind was soothing and thrilling at the same time. She _wanted_ him there, wanted him close, and she felt how he yearned for the same with every second they were connected.

They never broke the kiss. Not when she reached up to loosen the blood red tie around his neck, not when he dug his fingers deeper into her hips, not as they slowly stepped through the room and finally bumped against the bed frame.

Only then did she gasp for air and threw a glance up at his eyes that were dark and hungry. For her. It was in that moment that she realized that she would truly have to give up everything to stay with this man. Every last bit of what she had ever been.

Gin smiled and tugged at his loosened tie to draw him down to her again, while she lowered herself onto the bed. He followed willingly, his mouth seeking hers, tongues dancing, hands roaming.

Suddenly he broke the kiss, grabbed her wrists and held them down to both sides of her head. There was a dangerous darkness in his eyes, accompanied by a devilish smile.

"You want to be all mine then?" he almost whispered.

She swallowed and a tiny part of her mind screamed at what a stupid idea that was. But she only smiled.

"I've been that all along."

Gin had to leave behind more than she had expected. It wasn't only the place, she also had to make sure that no one would remember her. Not in her entire lifetime would she want her parents to endure losing another child. And that meant she had to vanish completely.

It wasn't that hard. Emil was able to hack into all necessary files and change them accordingly. And after that he sent some kind of radio signal through the whole place that would make everyone forget her just enough. He tried to explain it to her, but Gin wasn't sure she entirely understood.

And then there was only one step left. Erasing her from the memory of the people closest to her. The signal wasn't strong enough to do that, so Emil had to visit them on his own. Not that there were many people. Gin had never been the most popular person and besides her parent and Amy there was no one who really cared about her.

"Are you sure they can't remember?" she asked when he came back from Amy.

"Of course I am!" A smug smile played on his lips. "My hypnosis is pretty good, if I might say so." He chuckled and pulled her against him. "This whole thing wouldn't even be necessary, you know. You could have just told them you'd move to another country."

"Yeah, sure. As if anyone would believe that," she snorted. "And even if. They would notice one way or the other that I'm gone. And I don't want anyone to worry."

"You've got a way too gentle heart. What again makes you like me?" He laughed and leaned down to her, enough to spike her anticipation, but without actually getting too close, eyes glinting with mirth. "You know I'm a bad person. Probably the perfect opposite to you."

"Probably. Mhm... no, I really don't think so, actually." She hooked a finger into his collar and drew him closer to her. "I think first and foremost, you're just lonely. And I very much intend to change that."

In a quick and bold move she stretched a little and kissed him. Not in a lifetime could she imagine to ever get enough of this, of him. And he responded eagerly, stole her very breath away and left her lightheaded and flushed when he retreated eventually.

"Guess I'll have to find a way to stop you from aging then," he purred happily and took her hand. "But come. First I have to show you my TARDIS. You will bloody love her!"

He rushed ahead, Gin in taw, until they reached a building that seemed a little off in regards to the number of doors at its front.

"She calculates her surroundings and picks a fitting object to hide herself as that," he explained. "At least that's the short version. Anyway... in with you!" With that he opened the extra door and pushed Gin inside.

She gaped at what she saw there. The interior was bathed in bright, greenish light, a hexagonal, complicated looking console in the middle, and the walls were lined with bookshelves. But it wasn't only the alien appearance... somehow, in a weird and unexplainable way, it felt as if she should know this place.

"You... don't happen to have brought me here before, do you?" she asked carefully. "I don't know.. and let me believe it was a dream afterwards or so..."

Emil laughed and shook his head. "No. I would remember."

"Huh, then it's strange. It feels so... familiar." Gin stretched out a hand and stroked over the cool metal of the console. "Well... I've probably watched too much Star Trek or something like that."

And then, suddenly, she remembered something about the day he had started his irregular visits. She turned around, stepped in front of Emil and glared up at him with folded arms.

"You never told me your _real_ name," she remarked with a mischievous smirk.

"Well, and I won't," he retorted so fast it seemed like instinct. "You probably couldn't even pronounce it anyway." Gin didn't break her posture, so he almost hesitantly continued to tell, "It's custom among my people to choose a new name at some point."

"And that would be?"

He straightened with an evil grin. "I am the Master."

Gin snorted and finally turned away. "Of course you are."

"It's the name I chose. But I don't care what you call me." He stepped next to her and grinned down. "I've taken on many names in my life. One is as good as the other."

"Master it is then," Gin decided and giggled. "It fits you perfectly."

And this is how this tale could end. Because endings have to be bright and happy. They have to leave us with a soothing warmth in our hearts and chase away bad dreams in dark nights.

But you can't ever reach the last page of reality. It's not possible to lay it aside like a book you no longer want to read. It just goes on, whether we like it or not.

They travelled through all of time and space, chased after danger and fun and chaos, wherever they went. The Master was not a good person, as he had promised. But Gin's presence alone was enough to erase his urge for misery. He had no use for it any longer. Which didn't mean that he was a different man, not at all. And on some days Gin was shocked and felt sick at what he did. But all she ever got, was a look that clearly said, _I warned you_.

However, these days were rare and far apart. And she learned to live with them. There were so many other things she enjoyed too much. Rushing through all of time and space was exciting and awe-inspiring. They visited places she could have never imagined, not even after hearing the Master's stories for so many years. And it was thrilling to not bother about morals or rules. The universe was full of different angles. What was cruel and evil to one person could be normal or even desired by a whole planet. Gin learned that there was no so such thing as 'good or 'bad', and that she had to define these things anew for herself.

Sometimes the Master mocked her for her kind heart, called her weak and silly. But deep in his hazel eyes, that somehow always seemed to reflect the stars above their heads, she could see that he admired her for this trait. And because she never lost it while being with him.

She showed him kindness where everyone else had ever pushed him away. Compassion when he had none for himself. She loved him like no one else ever had, and she knew he felt the same, even though he never dared voicing it. That was just the way he was.

"A galaxy for your thoughts," the Master interrupted her pondering. He stepped in front of Gin, cupped her face with both hands and simply kissed her as if he had never done so before.

Eventually she broke away, gasped for air and leaned her head against his chest with a smile. "I thought about how I never want this life to end. How I never regretted leaving. Not even for a second, you know?"

The Master wrapped both arms around her and hummed content. Near her he could be calm and gentle. A side he hadn't known existed in himself.

From time to time they visited earth. Gin never wanted to return for good, but she loved seeing her home here and there. Disguised or with the help of perception filters they also took a glance at what Amy was doing.

Gin watched with a smile how she grew close to Rory Williams, the shy boy who had always adored Amy. She watched how Amy continued to talk about her raggedy doctor from her dreams, and wondered where this figure might have come from. Amy had never been able to tell when or where she had seen this doctor. It seemed to have to do with a crack, but the Master told her it had closed on its own - completely uneventfully - years ago, and there had been no doctor around.

But this time, as they visited, something was very off. People behaved strange, aliens were roaming the sky, calling for a _Prisoner Zero_.

Gin insisted on investigating, so they did. And somehow they ended up in a hospital. Somehow they ended up chasing away the aliens and preventing them from destroying the planet, by claiming they had already killed Zero.

But they had been wrong. He was still alive.

"Silence will fall," he hissed through sharp teeth at the two, then his featured morphed and became that of Amy as a child.

"Uh, wow, that's scary," the Master mocked snickering, his Laser Screwdriver pointing at the small chest.

"Just leave Amy be," Gin pleaded next to him. "We can drop you wherever you want. But leave her alone!"

"No. No I won't! It has to be prevented!" the girl spoke. "But it won't. It won't and we don't know why. But this girl is linked to everything." It pointed at itself.

The Master and Gin exchanged a confused look, then suddenly Prisoner Zero cocked Amy's head and sniffed the air. "No... no. She is part of it. But you..." It now pointed at Gin. "You smell so much more like it!"

"Wh... what?" She took a step back and drew her knifes from her belt. "I warn you. Come near me, and you'll die."

Zero laughed out loud, the sound eerie and wrong out of Amy's small mouth. The Master rose his laser and aimed at the girl, but it seemed as if he too was hesitating. All the years of having been her imaginary friend had done something to him. And even though he knew perfectly well that this thing in front of them was only a copy, he just couldn't.

But he had enough. And so he did anyway.

Zero bent and twisted and managed to get away with only a scratch. It hissed and screamed and then transformed again, now looking exactly like the Master.

"You've visited her so often," his own voice spoke mockingly, "I know everything about you."

"Yeaaaah, right," the real Master drawled and found his nails surprisingly fascinating all of a sudden.

His own nasty grin was on the other one's face, as it melted once more, went back into being a disgusting snake thing. The Master shot beam after beam at the thing, but in its own form it was fast.

"Master, careful!" Gin shouted and spun around with her knifes to hit away Zero's tale, while the head was aiming at the Time Lord. "You ugly shit. Leave him be!"

The snake turned around and hissed, then shot towards her. "Yoooou! It's you! You mustn't exist!" it hissed hatefully. "They were wrong. It wasn't the girl. It was you all along!"

Gin evaded and only scraped the slick skin. She heard laser beams shooting, but was too preoccupied to shift her focus on anything else. It had only been a couple of years that she was travelling with the Master now, but he had trained her well with the knifes, so Zero had no chance against her.

As soon as it realized that, it morphed again into the Master, but so fast that Gin hadn't seen it. And now two of them stood before her, both claiming to be the real one, both not showing any sign of falsehood.

"Ahhh, you know what?" one Master asked the other. "It's easy to prove that I'm the real one. You might copy me, but I bet you can't replicate a functioning laser screwdriver." He held up his own and tossed it happily onto the air, where it performed a small flip and was supposed to drop back into his hand.

It did.

But in the wrong pair of his hands. Zero stared at him, and the Master could read in his own face what the monster would do. That thing truly had copied him well. Maybe too well.

He wasn't fast enough.

The moment he bumped against himself and sent him crashing to the ground was the same moment his own laser screwdriver fired. Zero lay on the ground, laughing like a lunatic. Like he had laughed when the drums had still possessed his mind and had driven him insane.

The Master didn't care. He threw himself at the creature, got his laser back and then there was no laughing anymore. Zero would never move a muscle ever again.

He spun around and sighed relieved when he saw Gin gaping at him with a puzzled look on her face. She never liked seeing him kill. But this time the alien had truly deserved it. He took a deep breath and smiled, but then stopped dead in his tracks.

"I... Master... I..." Gin stuttered and stumbled a step towards him. "Oof, that's not so good I think."

Only now did he see the small, still smoking hole in her black leather jacket. His hearts stopped both for what felt like eternity, while she bumped against him and then collapsed. The Master grabbed Gin with both arms and held her, his fingers brushing over another hole at her back. The laser had not been on a deadly setting, but it had shot a hole through her anyway, at the wrong spot, and now he felt all the wet blood on the leather, felt his hands getting drenched in it, fast.

They both sunk to the ground, Gin's eyes flickered and her face was contorted in pain.

"You can fix this, right?" she almost begged, tears in her eyes. "Tell me you can."

The Master took her shaking, ice cold hand into his and held her tight, not able to speak a word.

"You have to," Gin murmured. "I can't leave you all alone out there. You're rubbish on your own." She tried to smile, and somehow she even managed.

It was what finally broke him. He lowered his head and clenched his teeth as if in pain. His whole body was trembling and only when he felt a hand touching his cheek did he notice the tears on his own face.

"You will live," he brought out. "That's an order, you hear me? Obey." He dropped his forehead against hers, his desperate eyes glued to hers. "Just this once, do what I tell you, you stubborn fool."

She smiled. It was so him to react like this. "You can make people forget me. Can't you do that with yourself too?" she breathed. "Then I'd be nothing but a ghost in your head. No one would know I ever existed. And then..." she sobbed, but still continued to smile. "Then no one would have to cry, right?"

"You have a way too gentle heart, my little crow." Carefully he leaned down and kissed her trembling lips. "How could I ever forget you?"

Her hand stretched out to wipe his tears away, she stretched to find his lips again, because all she had ever wanted was to be with him, and the only thing she would want to take with her was his taste, his scent, the feeling of his presence all around her, cradled in his arms, everything they had felt for each other pouring into this one last kiss.

The Master stared at her lifeless eyes, no longer a blazing green flame. He trembled, cradled her and then cried out. He screamed his pain into the empty room, begged every god and devil he had ever heard of to make it stop, to bring her back.

And someone answered.

"I heard someone screaming. Are you alr..." the woman's voice stopped. "Hey... I know you. You visited me when I was a child."

His head snapped up and he saw Amy standing there, slowly realizing what she was actually witnessing. The dead creature, the blood, the lifeless woman in his arms. She put both hands in front of her mouth, eyes wide in shock and disbelieve.

"Wha..." Amy swayed a little and drew in a deep breath when she saw his devastated face. She took together all her strength, didn't falter, and instead sunk to her knees in front of him. "Who was she?" Amy asked carefully.

Of course... she didn't know anymore.

"No one," the Master mumbled and swallowed. "There is no one who remembers her. She's... only a ghost." His hearts clenched and ached when he reached out to close her eyes.

"_You_ do," Amy said, her voice warm. "That's enough. Thanks to you she was real."

Amy stayed with him. She didn't speak a word. Not when he finally rose to his feet to carry the dead woman outside. Not when he walked almost two miles to a beautiful little lake in a forest. Not when he stole a shovel on the way and also not when he dug a hole in the moist forest ground.

She was simply there and refused to leave him alone. This strange man, who had told her fairy tales in her childhood, who had, however, never even told her his name. She would not ask for it now.

When the day came to an end, when the sun set over the lake and silence covered the forest and the unnamed, fresh grave, he finally looked at Amy.

"Thanks," he muttered, and even meant it.

"Of course." She gave him a warm, reassuring smile. "You know... You can always come visit me. I enjoyed that. And... maybe it's you who needs someone to tell him a few stories now."

His eyes were cold and distanced, but she could see the sadness he was trying to hide.

"It doesn't matter," was all he said before he walked away and left her standing in the darkness.

He was the Master.

The universe was his and his alone.

Well, one day it would be. That he was certain of. They would know his name. Everyone would. When he would be done leaving a swath of chaos and fire, when nothing would be left but cold, black ashes and decaying corpses.

No one would be left to witness his victory. Not that it would bother anyone.

Again he had the feeling as if something was missing. Someone, who was able to stop him. Because on his own he never would. And that hardly could be right. It was too easy.

He hated easy.

It didn't matter.

The Master couldn't tell how much time had passed. It could have been an hour or a century, for him it was all the same. But one day he returned to earth and visited Amy Pond. For no reason at all. Or maybe he simply wanted to take a look.

She wasn't at home and it wasn't that late anyway, so he strolled through town and scared children and parents alike, lit a few waste bins on fire with his laser screwdriver, broke a few of those hilariously expensive cars those humans were so fond of. And in the end he found out where Amy was.

He saw her with a large group of people, wearing a beautiful white dress. By her side was a boy, you could hardly call him a man, but she seemed to be so happy with him.

The Master was always dressed for the occasion. He liked wearing nice clothes. So no one noticed how he slipped between people and helped himself with food and alcohol. Not that the latter had much effect on him, but one could at least pretend.

He wasn't aware of much of what was going on and only looked up when it seemed as if the bride and her parents would hold a speech. He didn't listen. But then some turmoil started, Amy rose with a serious look on her face, a fire in her eyes that could surely burn entire worlds if she had the mind for it.

"Sorry, but shut up, please," she hissed towards her father. "There's someone missing. Someone important. Someone so, so important."

"Amy, what's wrong?" her husband asked perplex.

"Sorry. Sorry, everyone. But when I was a kid, I had an imaginary friend."

Her mother rolled her eyes and sighed, "Oh no, not this again."

Amy ignored her and continued, "The raggedy doctor. _My_ raggedy doctor. But he _wasn't_ imaginary, he was _real_."

The Master glared at her. How odd. It felt as if he knew she was telling the truth. His hearts ached and he remembered the feeling that had followed him since he could remember. Of someone, who should be there when he had turned around as a child, someone, who should have been around to stop him from becoming a monster.

"I remember you. I remember! I brought the others back, I can bring you home, too." Amy said all that almost begging, her eyes wandered through the room, as if she was searching for something, and found someone else. "See? The Master is here too!" She smiled at him and he wondered perplex, how she could know his name. "Raggedy man, I remember you, _and you are late for my wedding_!" She shouted determined.

A few sighs were shared by the crowd, but everyone went silent at once, when a rattling went through the room, getting louder and more intense by the second.

"I found you. I found you in words, like you knew I would," she continued smiling. "That's why you told me the story of the brand new, ancient blue box."

The balloons next to her got suddenly blown around by a strange gust of wind.

A blue box.

The Master stared at the woman. There it was again. A sensation as if her presence alone would be able to bring back what was missing from his mind.

"Oh, clever. Very clever," she mumbled happily.

Rory tugged at her arm. "Amy, what is it?"

She turned around and beamed at him. "Something old. Something new. Something borrowed. Something blue."

And then the Master could hear it. The woofing and wheezing of engines. And not just of any. No... that was a TARDIS, materializing right in the middle of the room! A device from the Time Lords! But that was impossible. It couldn't be! _He_ was the only one left.

Or was he?

Rory shot up and glared at the box, then he turned to his wife and spluttered out, "It's the _Doctor_. How did we forget the Doctor? I was plastic..."

But Amy was already on her way to the TARDIS. She plainly stepped over the table in her waving dress, knocked at the blue wood, and the Master could almost feel the vibrations running through the machine. Through himself.

_He should remember!_

He knew he should. It was right there, on the tip of his mind, waiting to burst like a bubble, but held back by _something_. Or maybe not some_thing_ but some... one. Someone he had forgotten, although it was impossible. After all, the memory was burned into his entire timeline, into his very being.

No, he had not forgotten. He had _decided_ to push away the memory, to bury it and make it vanish. Because it had been painful. Because deep in his hearts he had thought it would be easier if those two were missing from his life.

Because, when he had met Gin, he had gotten the second chance he had always deserved!

The Master sank to his heels and clutched his head. It still wouldn't pop back into his mind. He still refused to let it in, although he could feel how the timelines around him changed, how they rearranged themselves to fit what should have never existed, but did anyway now, brought back by Amy's words.

The blue door opened and out stepped the Doctor.

_The_ Doctor. The one, who he had expected to see when he had turned around as a child. The one, who would always stop him from going this tiny little bit _too_ far. His best friend, his most hated enemy, his brother, his demise.

But that wasn't what caught his attention the most.

Behind the Doctor stepped out a second person. One with short, red-dyed hair and flaming green eyes.

And he remembered.

He remembered everything.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, here we are. At the end of the tale. Don't worry, all remaining questions will be answered soon. ;D I hope you enjoyed this wild and probably unexpected ride through a somewhat... you could almost say "alternate universe", because, before the Doctor came back, it actually kinda was...
> 
> Let me know what you thought about this! x3


	28. III - The Pandorica

The Master remembered everything.

His head spun and hurt from feeling the timelines around him change and alter to fit what hadn't been but now had. He remembered the Doctor, who was now filling all the gaps that made no sense before. He remembered the things he now hadn't done, because the Doctor had prevented it right in time, but he also kept the memory of how he had.

Most would never know about the universe resetting.

But he remembered.

"Where are the others?" asked Roka as she sauntered into the library, the usual mug of coffee clutched between her fingers, when she sat into a comfy armchair.

"Something about the oldest graffiti in the universe. And Romans I think." The Master shrugged and didn't even look up from the book he was reading. "Boring."

She yawned and took a long sip from her coffee, before she asked, "What're you reading?"

"Moby Dick."

Roka huffed. "I still think, Ahab's an interesting character."

The Master paused in his reading and glanced up, a small smile curving his lips and his eyes behind the reading glasses suddenly twinkling amused.

"So you want to continue our little discussion from a hundred and fifty years ago?" He chuckled. "You know... that kinda made me like you a little back then."

"Only a little?" Roka smirked into her mug, thinking back at their little and silly discussion about human literature.

The Master shrugged and looked up from the pages. "You were nothing but a game to occupy my drums-plagued mind at first. Don't forget that. I never had any intentions of letting you live."

"Yeah, I always wondered why you kept me around for days to toy with me, although you could have used your hypnosis to get the TARDIS the very same moment we met." She cocked a brow and eyed him suspiciously over her coffee.

The most villainous grin Roka had seen in a long time graced his face all of a sudden. "Well, you proved to be interesting, so maybe I dragged that game on a little longer than intended."

It had been a nasty game. She had been his hostage to buy the Doctor time to get himself free. A smile twitched in the corners of Roka's mouth, though, when she thought back at it. Eventually she and the Master had somehow ended up running away with the Doctor's TARDIS together. Because they could. Because they had thought that time would reset with Roka's death, and had used this fact to live without consequences. Without being bothered about anything at all.

She had seen the life the Master preferred to live. Like a never calm sea, a never resting storm, playing with the universe as he wanted. There had been no rules. Nothing to hold them back. And even though she had never liked seeing him kill, and had never done so herself, she had enjoyed this time like no other.

And he had too. Maybe for the first time in centuries he had accepted a companion, someone who didn't judge and didn't try to change who he was. She had been his shadow, had reached out a hand to him, when no one else had been willing to. And without them even realizing it at first, they had grown closer to each other than anyone could have ever expected.

For a long while Roka observed this strange man in front of her, perched in an armchair, glasses on his nose and book in hands. As if nothing in reality could shake him. She had seen otherwise, had been there after the failed resurrection, had refused to leave him alone. And the Master, in his stubbornness, had teleported her away against her own will.

Sometimes Roka wondered how things might have changed, if he hadn't. Had they still separated? Would she have been able to prevent him from vanishing with the Time Lords? And what then? The drums would have rendered him completely insane in no time. She had seen it in his memory, had felt it even.

Such a small detail. Had she been there, had he not been sucked to Gallifrey, it would have probably killed him.

Would it have been the same, had she truly vanished from existence? If she had never been real in the first place?

Sure, it hadn't actually happened, but it was a thought that still haunted her mind sometimes. To have never even existed...

As if he had read her mind, the Master murmured, "Good thing you can't vanish."

She glanced up at him and nodded. "Yah... I'm glad about that. But come, let's take a look outside."

They entered the console room right in time to see the Doctor storm back in, followed by Amy and...

"Oh, bloody hell! That woman again!" the Master groaned and let an annoyed look wander over River and her weird Cleopatra dress. "And what a ridiculous costume."

"It's always a delight to see you, deary," she purred and headed to the doors. "I need to get some proper clothes. Then we're heading to Stonehenge. Wanna come along, you two?" River wriggled her fingers and vanished through the doors with a chuckle, and without waiting for the answer.

"Yeah, no..." Amy drawled and shot a look at the Master. "That might be a baaaad idea, Doctor."

"Why?" he asked flabbergasted. "The most dangerous thing in the universe is locked away in the Pandorica! We should be as many as possible!"

"The most dangerous thing, eh?" The Master snickered and peeked at Roka. "Sounds like fun. And _certainly_ not like something I would want to claim for myself."

"At the first opportunity?" Roka poked out her tongue, but was already eager to come along. "Well, I'm certainly in. Haven't been to Stonehenge since over a century anyway."

She sauntered over to Amy and let her tell about everything they had found out outside. Apparently the graffiti had been River's doing. And it had lead them to this place here, where a roman legion was waiting outside. The reason for all the ruckus was nothing else but a painting from Vincent. One that showed the TARDIS exploding and wore the coordinates of Stonehenge.

"The Pandorica is a myth," the Master drawled and glared at the ceiling with folded arms. It seemed as if he was already bored by the prospect of their next adventure leading to nothing.

"That's what I thought as well," the Doctor seconded. "And well... the painting doesn't show the exact coordinates... it's more like a... a..."

"You're just guessing, aren't you?" The other Time Lord sighed and rolled his eyes. "Great, we're chasing fairy tales. That regeneration of yours surely is boyish."

"Oi, shut it!" the Doctor protested indignantly. "You know that Vincent could see a lot more than other humans. I trust he didn't paint this in vain."

"Yeah," Amy seconded, "It has to be important somehow."

"Ready?" River's voice rang through the console room. Somehow she had managed to change extremely quickly and was now throwing eager glances around.

Then she spotted Roka and smiled widely. "Oh, I haven't greeted you properly, Roka. I hope the boys don't drive you insane already." River rushed over and hugged her tightly.

"Uhh..." Roka was perplex and awkwardly returned the hug. "Can you... remember me now?" she finally asked, remembering River's words from their last encounter. That she could somehow remember, but also not, and that she was eager to find out which role Roka would play.

"Why, of course, I do!" she protested and retreated. "We have met quite a few times already. Not for you... probably. But we will." She chuckled a little. "Don't think I could ever forget how you..." There she paused and threw a side glance at the Master, before she only smiled and winked. "Spoilers."

She was the first to rush outside the doors, closely followed by the whole crew. They went back to the roman camp and _borrowed_ some horses. One for everyone.

Or at least that had been the plan.

Roka took a wide step back and stared at the animal in front of her, eyes narrowed. The Master observed her for a few seconds.

"Don't tell me, you're afraid of an animal," he teased and snickered at her expression.

She took a deep breath and broke eye contact with the horse. "I'd call it respect." She shrugged and glanced at her shoes. "And... I... err... can't ride."

"Not a problem at all." He chuckled and grabbed her arm. "Hop on. You can ride with me."

She turned to him, her eyes wandering between the animal and the Master, and nodded. Maybe she had lied a tiny little bit about not being afraid. But Amy sat on her horse as if she had done so her whole life, and somehow that gnawed on her pride a little. Sometimes she really felt as if she were her little sister. And that somehow stirred the desire to prove that she was, indeed, older. Much older at that. Right now, though, Amy didn't have eyes for her, and was instead fully indulged in a conversation with River.

"Do I have to heave you up?"

The Master's teasing voice tore her out of her musings and quickly she climbed into the saddle, trying to ignore the small movements the horse made here and there. Carefully she stretched out a hand to stroke the mane and felt the warmth of the animal's body beneath her fingers. The glitch had made her invisible to all life forms, so she also never had much opportunity to spend much time with animals, even though she always enjoyed watching them.

Behind her the Master flopped into the saddle, reached in front of her and grabbed the reins. His other hand snaked around Roka's middle and held her tight against him. Instinctively she stiffened at the unexpected touch. Shortly after she felt warm breath brushing her ear as he leaned down to her.

"I won't hurt you." His voice was soft and warm, and his grip loosened just enough to make her relax a little.

"I... I know," she stammered and felt stupid. Of course he had to hold her. Otherwise she would just fall down during the ride. "Sorry."

"Don't be."

He made the horse move and followed the others who already were a few meters ahead. They weren't in a lot of hurry, since they had come here a good amount of time before Vincent's coordinates.

After a while Roka got a little used to the animal's movements. It was so weird to sit on the back of a living creature. At least of one that was so... small. At least in comparison to the only creatures Roka had ever climbed. And those usually were so gigantic that _riding_ certainly was the wrong term. She remembered...

"I once was on a planet that probably was ten times as big as earth," she started to tell. "Spent a lot of time there. it was nice, you know? Good weather, good foot, many water sources. And it was really beautiful. Orange grass and yellow oceans. Blue treetops under turquoise stems." She paused and glanced up a little to see if he was even listening.

When he noticed that she didn't continue, he looked down and smiled. "Go on. You owe me those stories."

Roka huffed and smiled a little herself. "I know. Just wasn't sure, you'd listen."

"Always."

"At first I thought there weren't any life forms beside plants on that planet," she continued, "But after a few days I found a huge chasm. Well... I thought it was one. When I looked down into it, it looked as if the ground was slowly moving. And it was! Just imagine... I thought I had been on the ground the whole time. But right there and then I learned I sat right on the back of a creature. And in the distance there were some more of them. Big as a village and they moved on three tall, thin legs."

Without noticing she became fully consumed by her own memory. Of how she had found the head, that wore a long snout with which the creature picked food from the ground. Of how she had spent another few days simply sitting at the edge of the creature and watching the land pass by, and also the others of its kind in the distance. One day she had climbed down and watched in awe as the thing slowly strode past her, astonishingly without making much noise. And there the ground was brimming with animal life of all kinds.

Stonehenge was close already. They would probably reach it within the next twenty minutes or so. She had ended her story and dwelled a little longer in the memory. Only then did she notice that she had fully relaxed and was leaning comfily against the Master's chest. His one hand still was wrapped securely around her, while his eyes stayed sternly fixated on the path ahead. It was warm and she felt safe. As safe as she probably hadn't felt in... well, probably since they had separated.

_How can this be_, she wondered. He could be so cruel and mindlessly malicious. At the same time he was like a bastion of calm, warm and protecting. And she wanted nothing more than for this moment to never end. To have him hold her like this forever, so she would never have to be scared or lonely again.

Surprised Roka felt her heart speed up and she hoped he wouldn't notice. It took a great deal of composure not to put her hand on her chest in a vain attempt to calm the silly thing. Instead she let herself sink a little more against the Master, and as he noticed, he held her a little tighter, but never in a hurtful way.

_Maybe_, Roka thought sleepily, _this is all a dream_. _My head is making this up._

But if that was the case, did she dream of something she feared, or of something she wanted?

So many memories came rushing back to the Master as he sat there on the floor on Amy's wedding, watching the two people exiting the TARDIS he had completely forgotten. The two most important people that had ever never existed in his long life, that had never been real, but now where again, because they always had after they stopped not to.

He sunk together some more, clutching his hurting head. So many memories at once.

Of how they had found a way below the big stones, of the huge door they had pushed open, grinning like small academy boys, waiting to uncover the unspeakable. In that moment he and the Doctor had truly stood on the same side for once, the lust for the unknown and impossible wiping away everything that had ever stood between them.

Of how they had entered the chamber, clad in eternal darkness, only illuminated by the light of their torches. And there it had stood, forebodingly, smelling like danger and like something the Master wanted to claim at all cost. But there hadn't been time for that. The stones had transmitted the signal throughout all of time, leading anyone and everyone to them.

River chased back to the Romans, the others stayed back, trying to...

"What good is half an hour?" Amy asked exasperated.

"There are fruit flies live on Hoppledom Six that live for twenty minutes and they don't even mate for life." The Doctor continued to scan the Pandorica and paused for a second. "There was going to be a point to that. I'll get back to you."

"He wants to say, that half an hour can be a lifetime. It could change everything under the right circumstances." The Master explained unnerved and let his tablet wander over the foreign construct. He wasn't too eager to battle whatever was out there, or to share whatever was inside the box.

Roka stood a bit to the side with Amy and watched the Time Lords doing their thing when she noticed the other woman was looking at a small red box in her hands.

"What's that?" Roka enquired and then shut her mouth as she realized that she knew it.

"I have to ask him," Amy mumbled to herself, completely ignoring the question. Quickly she stepped to the Pandorica and the Doctor. "So, are you proposing to someone?"

"I'm sorry?"

"I found this in your pocket." She held out the open ring box towards him.

Roka came closer and almost held her breath. The Doctor's face went pale and they exchanged a quick look. She shook her head, her eyes imploring he wouldn't unnecessarily trigger the memory. It would be too hurtful and they both knew it.

"No. No, no, that's err, a memory. A friend of mine. Someone I lost." He tried to grab the ring. "Do you mind?"

Amy evaded and held the box closer to her eyes. "It's weird. I feel... I don't know... something."

Behind her Roka shook her head, and now the Master also had caught attention of what was going on. He stood next to Roka and his gaze couldn't have been icier.

The Doctor swallowed and his mind was visibly running a million miles per hours.

"People fall out of the world sometimes," he started carefully and gave the Master a look that probably should mean, he wouldn't remind her. "But they always leave traces. Little things we can't quite account for. Faces in photographs, luggage, half eaten meals... rings." He took a breath and this time a look wandered to Roka as he continued, "Or just symbols... Nothing is ever forgotten, not completely. And... if something can be remembered... it can come back."

A cold shiver ran down her spine. Had she died during her time as a glitch... in a way she truly would have never existed. And again it seemed as if the Master had read her mind. His arm was suddenly lying over her shoulders, squeezing her a little.

No, she could not vanish. Not anymore. Not as long as the Master was alive at least.

But if the Doctor wasn't planning on remembering Amy of Rory, then what was his intention behind this speech? The Doctor's eyes wandered to everyone and he took a deep breath as if to steel himself.

"Remember that night you flew away with me?" he asked.

Amy gave him an impatient look. "Of course I do. How could I ever forget?"

But that didn't seem to be his concern at all. Instead he blabbered on, his words stumbling out of his mouth so fast, it seemed he had to throw them out or otherwise it would consume him.

"And you asked me why I was taking you and I told you there wasn't a reason... I was lying."

"Okay, so you did have a reason?"

"Your house," he quickened to explain.

"Her house?" Roka asked and cocked a brow at him. "I've been there. There's nothing special about it. And no traces of Prisoner Zero either."

"Probably just had a nightmare he thinks was a real event," the Master mocked.

But the Doctor shook his head, ignored the jibe and continued to ramble, his hands waving around, "It was too big. Too many empty rooms. Does it ever bother you, Amy... that your life doesn't make any sense?"

The Master remembered. He remembered the fight against the broken Cyber Man, how the thing had gotten him, had shot a laser bean through his hand. It had hurt, badly. He had dropped his screwdriver and hadn't been able to pick it back up before the metal creature was out of sight.

Roka had been right behind him, her knifes ready. There was a story to those knifes, he remembered. They were special, but he hadn't found the time to ask. Only one thing had been important in that moment.

She had been safe.

Amy, on the other hand, hadn't been. They heard her screaming and other loud noises, and then someone had rushed past them and had slammed his sword through a door. And before they all could find back to their senses, they saw the figure returning, with the red-head in his arms.

And it was impossible.

"Hello again," the Doctor uttered, after he had finally concluded his ramblings and had suddenly realized, who exactly it was that stood there in front of him, clad in the armour of a roman soldier.

"Hello." Rory's voice sounded somewhere between not at all surprised and irritated.

The Master and Roka rushed to the two and both didn't need as long as the Doctor had. Roka let out a surprised noise, while the Master's face only dropped.

"You're impossible," he simply remarked.

"Err... uh... well..." Rory could barely find words. "You're still... around then," he finally remarked and tossed a second look at Roka. "And you too."

Meanwhile the Doctor was still staring at Rory in utter disbelieve, turning awkwardly away and then back.

"So... how have... you been?"

It was obvious that the whole situation was a little too much for him to comprehend right now. A rare sight to behold. But at least he wasn't alone with it. Rory seemed as much confused.

"Err... good," he simply stated. "Well... Roman."

"Oh, bloody hell!" the Master called out. "I've got no time for you idiots. There's a whole army of whomever heading to this place, I want whatever is inside the Pandorica _before_ they get to us, and then vanish as fast as possible." He grunted annoyed and faced Rory with a stern look. "You _died_."

"Yeah," the now Roman retorted astonishingly unfazed. "I know. I was there."

With waving hands the Doctor whirled around. "No! Not just like that! You died and then you were erased from time. You didn't just _die_, you were never born _at all_." He tapped against Rory's breast plate.

"You never existed."

The Pandorica was about to open.

And all hell broke loose.

The sky was filled with thousands and thousands of ships, all enemies of the Doctor gathered at one place. All eager to get whatever was inside the mysterious box.

And there he stood. Tall and flimsy and wiggling about and shouting at all the creatures in the sky at once, as if nothing in the universe could harm him.

That he was.

That was the Doctor.

The Master was hiding with Roka behind some of the tall stones, eager to stay out of sight. He wasn't so stupid to get into a fight with all those ships up there. But he couldn't help but stare at the Doctor, couldn't help but feel a sting in his hearts, as he watched his oldest friend being just himself, challenging the whole universe.

And the Master felt proud.

So, so many centuries ago they had been just children, running around and pretending to do great things. They had both been scared more often than not, had both done things far beyond what they would normally dare, had gotten into more trouble than anyone could ever put on record.

He and the Doctor. And now he was there, facing the unknown and total destruction.

And showed no sign of fear at all.

The Master smiled.

Roka observed him and wondered what might be going on in his head. She knew not much about their past, only that the Master hated the Doctor so deeply, that it was hard to comprehend for a simple human mind. She knew where that hate had originated from. She knew about the Master's daughter, and what had happened to her, and how the Doctor had abandoned his friend that day because of it.

But right now he looked at his oldest enemy as if there could be nothing in the entire universe he could ever be more proud of.

Maybe she did understand. A little at least.

The Master was a great mind. One who was almost impossible to fight if he had set his mind onto something. So, who else would he love more than anyone else, but the very man who was capable of destroying _his_ plans over and over again?

"You're sure, you two aren't brothers?" she mumbled next to him.

The Master glanced down and his lips curved into an amused grin.

"I'd probably kill everyone else for a comment like that." He chuckled and poked her head. "But look at him. That's an enemy to behold, isn't he?"

"Sounds as if you enjoy being defeated by him all the time."

At that the Master only laughed, obviously unwilling to deign her a comment, and instead watched how the Doctor concluded his speech.

"Come on! Look at me," he shouted into the transmitter. "No plan, no back up, no weapons worth a damn. Oh, and something else. I don't have _anything to lose_!"

Roka stiffened at those last words. Did he really mean that? Again she glanced at the Master, but his face was unreadable.

"So, if you're sitting up there in your silly little spaceship, with all your silly little guns, and you've got any plans on taking the Pandorica tonight, just remember who's standing in your way. Remember every black day I ever stopped you, and then... and then, do the smart thing... Let somebody else try first."

The Doctor spread his arms and watched the ships retreat. But in that moment Roka saw more. In combination with his words from before a painful picture got drawn into her head. A picture of a man, a lonely wanderer through time and space, who had lost everything and everyone. His own race, his home, every family he might have ever had, every companion that had ever travelled along.

For the first time since she had first met the Doctor, she realized _how_ lonely he must be, how hard and painful it must be for him to move on, over and over again, after every loss. How astonishing it was that he could still stand there, tall and proud and chase away such an overwhelming enemy.

And at the same time looked as if he wished for nothing more, but for them to return and shoot him down for good. So he wouldn't have to run any longer, so he wouldn't have to be alone anymore.

Roka's heart clenched and she swallowed some tears before they could surface. Then she wordlessly leaned closer to the Master and slipped her hand into his. He clasped her, but didn't move, his eyes glued to the Doctor.

"Damn you, Doctor," the Master mumbled, more to himself. "I won't let you get away so easily."

His eyes snapped down to Roka and his brows knitted together tightly.

"Well... seems like we have to protect him then," she suggested with a warm smile and added, "And you too."

"Me?" He laughed out and shook his head. "I don't need protection. I'm stronger, faster and plainly better than _any_ of those."

"Yah." Roka clasped his hand tighter. "That's what makes you so dangerous for yourself."

He remembered.

How they went back downstairs to further investigate the Pandorica, how the Roman soldiers came with them, how the Doctor's face went pale when River called him over the communicator. He had rerouted the call to the Master's tablet so he could listen too.

The whole thing had been a trap, created from Amy's memories by someone or some_thing_. And the TARDIS was stuck, with River inside. And then...

_Silence will fall!_

The call rang through the communicator, and every Roman went limp and got rebooted.

And the Pandorica had opened.

It all happened so fast it was hard to grasp a single thought before it was over.

The Daleks had appeared, the Cybermen, the Sontarans and many, many more. The Romans had grabbed the Doctor and had dragged him into the box, sealed him away because they had thought he was the cause of the cracks.

They couldn't have been more wrong.


	29. III - The weight of vanishing

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Totally forgot this last week. So... late Merry Christmas to all of you! xD And hopefully a great start into a new year! x3

A wall of Romans and aliens was blocking the way to the Pandorica. The Master strode forward, never halting and shooting one after the other with his laser screwdriver. Next to him Roka knifed her way through at least as many, without ever halting.

But there were too many. Eventually they were stopped and were held tightly at both arms. Not even the Master could escape with his inhuman strength, and all he could do was to let out a frustrated cry.

No one listened.

The doors of the Pandorica closed with the last plea of the Doctor reverberating through the chamber.

And somehow... the universe ended.

Roka had awaited to see explosions or fire, or anything at all, to hear and feel _something_.

But there was just nothing.

And then even the aliens were gone.

From one moment to the next she wasn't held anymore and could move freely. Surprised she stumbled forward and bumped against the Master. Around them was nothing but tons of dust and a few dark grey carcasses of aliens and Romans.

And silence.

Slowly the Master turned around to her. He was slightly trembling and clenched his eyes shut, teeth gritted. Roka stretched a little and cupped the side of his face. His lids opened slightly, revealing a pain too deep for anyone to bare. He took her hand and a deep breath.

"It's over," he mumbled, voice shaking. "Everything."

"Yeah, seems quite like it. What happens now?"

She wasn't certain if she really understood the weight of the current situation. She knew the Doctor had been the only person to stop the TARDIS from exploding. And now he was locked away, which had caused all of reality to... have never existed? It only made partially sense, also the fact that she and the Master were the only two that weren't affected by it.

Roka stood still, watched his desperate eyes moving about, his mind uselessly searching for a way out, for some way to fix this. But there was none. His forehead dropped gently against hers and he took her hand to press a kiss to it.

"Nothing happens," he murmured. "Nothing will ever again. Reality ended and we're nothing but an afterimage. We'll fade too. Soon."

Somehow she couldn't help it. The Master had managed to bring her smile back after so many years, and now it sometimes was so hard to keep it back. Like now.

"So, once again we might be the only two things left in existence. Stranded on a small, fading piece of reality in the eye of the storm."

Noiselessly the Master laughed a little to himself, although his eyes shimmered wet. It wasn't sadness she saw there. It was anger and the knowledge of being utterly defeated.

"No dancing this time," he said softly. "I think I'm done with that. But..." He stroked a hand along her face and leaned a little closer down. "Before we vanish... I want to remember every bit of you. There won't even be memories where we go, but... just once, okay?"

Even now she hesitated, retreated just a tiny little bit as he leaned in closer. It was instinct, but she could see the hurt in his eyes nonetheless, so she corrected her movement and approached, eyes locked - maybe forever - and their lips only a breath apart...

"Doctor!"

The voice let them stumble away from each other, surprised and somewhat shocked. Both saw Rory storming down the stairs at the same time. He slithered to a halt in front of them, his hand held the Doctor's Sonic Screwdriver.

"I... I have to open the box," he stammered. "The Doctor he... he gave me his screwdriver. Outside. But he is still inside, you understand?"

"Ha!" The Master clapped his hands together and his eyes suddenly filled with a newly lit fire. "Bloody brilliant idiot!"

He snatched the sonic out of Rory's hand and stormed to the Pandorica. Roka stayed behind, still a little flushed from the moment before. Rory peeked at her from the side and she hastily turned her head away and followed the Master.

They got the Doctor free and after that they had found Amy.

Dead.

Rory turned out to be one of the plastic soldiers. Only a duplicate of the original, created by the Nestene consciousness. But Amy's memories had worn an imprint of him so powerful it had restored him fully.

Sure, he was plastic. And a Roman. But still and fully Rory Williams.

"Don't worry," the Doctor assured. "She'll be safe. The box only needs her living DNA, and she told me, she went to the national museum as a child. I'd be damned if this box won't land there one day. Well... if this_ one day_ will still exist then. Hard to say how long this small pocket of reality will stay alive."

"So, you're just guessing?" Rory tossed in flabbergasted.

"Yes, yes I am." The Doctor threw his hands up and let them fall against his legs. "But it's the only thing I can do right now. Guess and hope." He pointed at Rory. "I've got a future somewhere. And somehow this has to lead us to the exact moment where I hand you my Sonic."

"Yeah, it's as good as it can get." The Master shrugged. "But what good will it bring to save the girl?"

"Well... it's the thing I do, isn't it?" The Doctor held up an explaining finger. "So by doing what it is I do, I probably will end up in my own future, right?"

The other Time Lord rolled his eyes. "Maybe. But I'm not very eager to wait two thousand years for your little princess. And your TARDIS exploded... how again did that happen anyway?"

"Wish I knew... We'll never learn if we don't prevent it. So hush! Call your own TARDIS, Master. Always bragging about remote control, so get her here."

"I can't," he grumbled and folded his arms. "She probably already vanished from existence. At least I can't get any signal from her."

"What about this?" Roka interrupted and held out her wrist to them. Her Vortex Manipulator was attached to it. "You think it still works?"

"You bet!" The Doctor clapped and hugged her tight, before he loosened the straps and put the VM on himself. "It's probably safer when I use it. So come, you two, chopp, chopp. Into the future! Rory, don't make such a face, nothing can get into that box."

"This box needs a guard."

"No! Rory... no. Don't even think about it."

"Ugh, leave him be, if he wants to," the Master drawled. "We've got better things to do. And no one needs a coward like him anyway."

The Doctor completely ignored him and was only fixated on the plastic Roman in front of him.

"Two thousand years, Rory. You won't even sleep. You'd be conscious every second. It would drive you _mad_. Have you _any_ idea what you're doing there?"

"Will she be safer if I stay?" The so called coward suddenly looked a lot braver than a lot of people the Master had ever seen. "Look me in the eye and tell me she _wouldn't_ be safer."

"You..."

"Answer me!" Rory demanded.

"Yes... She will be." The Doctor sighed defeated.

"Then how could I leave her?"

His look was determined, his posture showing no sign of fear of facing the task ahead. It reminded the Master of how he used to feel a certain respect towards the man. A mere human, but willing to risk and do plainly everything to protect Amy.

He observed Roka next to him and wondered if he himself would do the same. Would he truly be that crazy? She peeked up at him, met his eyes and then hastily turned her head away.

No, probably not.

Her behaviour was obvious enough. She didn't want him any closer than necessary, and he doubted this would ever change much.

He was chasing shadows again.

Somehow they ran, somehow they found Rory and Amy too, two thousand years in the future and fully restored, somehow the Doctor saved River from the time loop inside the still exploding TARDIS and even _more_ somehow they ended up at the Pandorica once more.

And yes, somehow they planned to reboot the whole universe.

Roka still couldn't believe it. Either the Doctor was completely out of his mind now, or more brilliant than anyone of them could have ever expected.

It didn't prevent him from getting shot by a Dalek, who had been hit by the light of the Pandorica. It had, however bought him enough distraction and time to sneak away from everyone and wire himself to the box.

But he had calculated his own strength wrong. Maybe for the first time in his life.

When the group arrived at the Pandorica, he sat inside, unmoving. The Master pushed River out of the way, ripped the Sonic Screwdriver out of his friend's limp hand to let it whirr over the Doctor's lifeless body. It confirmed what he had been afraid of, and in rage the Master smashed his fist against the box, scraped his knuckles bloody and let out a tirade of courses towards the man in the Pandorica.

"Oh," River let out behind him, probably unaware of the severity of his state. "Oh, I get it, Doctor."

"Get what?" Amy wanted to know. Her eyes constantly darted towards the box, her mind unwilling to accept what she was witnessing there.

"The TARDIS is still burning," River explained, "It's exploding at every point in history. If you threw the Pandorica into the explosion, right into the heart of the fire..."

"Then what?"

"Then let there be light," came the toneless voice of the Master from right behind them. His face showed no emotion, his eyes were empty and cold. "The light from the Pandorica would explode everywhere at once, just like he said."

"That would work?" Roka asked doubtfully. "That would bring everything back?"

River glanced at the box and at the Doctor inside and nodded. "A restoration field powered by an exploding TARDIS, happening at every moment in history." She smiled sadly. "Oh, that's brilliant... It might even work. He's wired the vortex manipulator and himself to the rest of the box, so he can take it with him. He's going to fly the Pandorica into the heart of the explosion!"

"No... he won't."

The Master looked her dead in the eye, saw how every hope dwindled from them as she realized the truth. Roka glared at him, then at the box and the unmoving Doctor. Never before had she seen a darkness like this in his eyes. She stepped next to him and took his hand, but this time he didn't seem to even notice.

"No," River whispered. "No, you're lying. You're... He can't be... He's just unconscious, isn't he?"

She clenched her hand to a fist and looked so eager to smash it right into the Master's face. But she didn't. Although he had a look on his face as if he wouldn't even mind. Right now they were in the same position, having lost one of the most important people in their life.

He held her desperate gaze, arms folded protectively over his chest. Everything right now happened way too fast to properly process it. Roka glanced back at the box, wondering if he really could be... dead? The Doctor?

No, that simply couldn't be. She swallowed hard and looked back at the Master.

"One of us has to go with him," he mumbled. "He's wired himself into the machine so none of us would sacrifice themselves... Oh stupid, stupid Doctor." He sighed and closed his eyes. "You fool. You thought you would make it just long enough, didn't you?"

"Wait... Sacrifice?" Roka cocked a brow at him. It was hard to see him so devastated, unfazed as he might try to look. But that phrase right now had sounded so very wrong.

River placed a hand on her shoulder. "He would be the heart of the explosion. All the cracks will close, but... he'd be stuck on the wrong side. Trapped in the neverspace. The void. He..."

"...will have never existed," the Master closed. "Together with whomever decides to go with him."

A rough shaking went through the whole museum, sending everyone stumbling around for a bit. It stopped after a few seconds, but therefore the burning TARDIS was shining brighter than ever before above their heads. Not long, and everything would be gone forever, no matter what they did or didn't do.

"I'm certainly not going," the Master grumbled with furrowed brows. "Not planning to vanish."

Rory and Amy exchanged a quick look and hugged each other tightly. No, it would be cruel to send any of them away, right when they had found together again.

"I guess it's easy," River mumbled. "I'll go. You lot stay save." She already rushed to the Pandorica and leaned inside.

River was a good choice, Roka thought. Somehow she seemed to be really close to the Doctor, even though he didn't know why, yet. He probably would have learned one day. But now he never would.

Yes, River was a good choice, Roka thought once more, a shiver running down her spine. The thought of having never existed... it haunted her. It had never, not even once, left her mind. For so long no one had been able to remember her very existence. But in her actions she had managed to burn herself into the memory of the universe. She had left so many traces, had left the symbol of a crow for everyone to remember... no... that wasn't true. She had left it for the Master.

So he would find her one day.

And he had searched for her for so long.

He had burned the memory of her into his entire timeline, into his very essence, making him literally unable to ever forget her.

"If something can be remembered... it can come back," she mumbled.

"What do you say?" the Master asked, his eyes returning from some dark place inside his own head.

Roka looked up at him. "You can't ever forget me," she stated.

He huffed and turned his head away. "Was probably the stupidest thing I've ever done."

"No..." She shook her head and stepped away from him. "No, I think it was the best thing you could do."

She saw how it dawned on him what she was referring to, eyes widening in disbelieve. Quickly he jumped at her and grabbed her arm.

"_What in the universe do you think you're doing?!_" he shouted.

River turned around and faced them, curiosity and concern on her face.

"Amy brought Rory back!" Roka defended herself. "Only because she _remembered_ him! The Doctor said, her memory is strong, because of the crack in her wall."

"Yeah, I heard that too," River seconded and nodded towards Amy. "Time poured through your head for years. That made you special. I bet, it's the reason he took you along in the first place. Never can resist a mystery."

Roka tore at her arm, but the Master refused to let her go, even when another tremor went through the museum.

"Don't you get it?" she enquired. "You can bring me back! Amy too. Both of you together. And then... maybe the Doctor as well."

"But..." Amy swallowed. "What if it doesn't work?"

Roka let her eyes wander over everyone and swallowed. "Then it won't matter much. I've never been real my entire life. Nothing would change. The... time with all of you..." She took a deep breath. "I really enjoyed it. Really, really did. But you two..." She nodded at Amy and Rory. "You have to stay together. And I bet there are people waiting for River too. And..." Her eyes wandered to the Master. No, no one was waiting for _him_. He was all alone. The same way as the Doctor and herself. Still, a small smile wandered to her face. "Maybe it wouldn't be so bad for you to forget me," she mumbled. "I can't give you, what you want from me. And it was cruel of me to ask you to stay anyway."

Finally he let go of her arm, his eyes cold and empty. He didn't move when she walked to the Pandorica and squeezed herself inside somehow, her small size giving her an advantage. But when she reached out for the button to close the doors, the Master rushed over and put both hands to either side of the opening.

"I don't care. I'll bring you back," he stated determined.

Roka nodded and reached out for the button. When the doors closed she looked up at the Master.

"My last wish. Do you still remember it?" she asked.

Puzzled he glanced back and shook his head.

One last time she smiled at him.

"Don't be so lonely."

Then the doors closed.

Everything was a blur of colours and sounds and impressions. She hadn't expected the Pandorica to actually _fly_, had no idea how the Doctor had managed to do _that_ with just her Vortex Manipulator. There was no time for fear, no time to think about anything at all.

There was only...

Roka woke up, lying on her back inside the TARDIS. Next to her was the Doctor, but he suddenly sprang to life, shooting up and glancing around.

"I'm alive!" he called out. "And still there! Legs! Legs are good." He reached up. "Bowtie, perfect. And..." The Doctor turned his head and saw Roka. His face dropped immediately and he jumped to his feet. "Oh... no... no, no, no! What have you done? Why are you...?"

"You screwed up," she grumbled and got to her feet. "You died down there, I think. So someone else had to fly the Pandorica."

The shock in his eyes was deep and only overshadowed by pain at her words.

"No," he mumbled again and looked away. "I've damned you. _I wanted to protect all of you!_" Tears were in his big eyes, his breath trembling when he stared at her.

Roka shrugged. "Don't beat yourself up over it. It's too late for that. And somehow we are still here, aren't we?"

Right as she said it there suddenly were noises behind them. And not just any. They both turned around and watched a weird scene of themselves standing around the console. The Doctor was doing something to his tech, Amy was asking some questions and Roka stood aside, only watching.

The Doctor remembered. "That was when we went to space Florida."

"What... is this?" Roka waved a hand at the unfolding scene.

"My... our timeline is rewinding." He turned around and pointed at a crack in one of the walls and murmured, "Hello universe, Goodbye inmates."

Once more he turned and looked at Amy, called out her name. And she... reacted. She looked around, took down her sunglasses, but she didn't see them standing there. Then she shrugged and ran after the past-Doctor.

"Oh, that's..." he started.

But then everything blurred and smeared and Roka felt a pull in her stomach, saw images rushing by so fast it made her dizzy.

Then she stood inside the TARDIS again. Not the Doctor's though. The lights in here were greenish in colour and the whole atmosphere was darker and calmer. The image jolted once more, putting her inside the room she had chosen.

There she saw herself and the Master. She stood pressed against the wall, he was about to leave the room, his hand on the door handle.

"Was there... anything?" he asked, his voice holding a cautiously neutral tone.

Her past self closed her eyes and after a few seconds breathed, "...nothing."

The Master left the room, and Roka followed, her heart aching. She didn't want to see him so hurt. It hadn't been fair how she had acted towards him. Carefully she reached out a hand, but was afraid of what might happen, would she touch him.

"Master?" she whispered.

He whirled around, shock on his face. But then he shook his head and murmured, "No, it can't be."

The scene smeared and Roka got tossed through time again. She closed her eyes to block out the dizzying images. When she reopened them, she still found herself in the Master's console room. But this time he was alone, sitting on his sofa with a book in hands and his glasses high up his nose.

The sight always amused her. He looked so ridiculous with glasses. But right now she couldn't find it in her to laugh and only stared at the lonely figure in front of her. Only then did she notice that something was off. First of all it was the fact that she was nowhere to be seen, and then it was this weird shift in the air, like a tingling of electricity.

The Master seemed to notice too, because he looked up and searched the room for something.

"You really could talk to me, you know," he sighed. "Just once..."

Roka's mouth dropped open and she trod closer. It didn't seem as if he could actually see her. But whom was he talking to, then?

It struck her like lightning. This was the time he had been searching for her. The Master had told her about it, only briefly, but he had. Some version of her future self had materialized in his TARDIS and had somehow guided him to her current self.

But with her death this timeline should have vanished, shouldn't it? It had never really happened?

Then again, Roka wasn't an expert on how time worked. So often it made no sense to her at all what was happening around her. One time things just never happened, others they somehow did anyway. One thing was a paradox, and the next wasn't although, to her, it should be.

"You've been travelling all alone for this entire time, haven't you?" he asked the silent air. His voice sounded sad. "Are you... lonely? Mhm... I bet you are. How else could it be..."

Tears stung her eyes and she wanted to speak up, but once again she felt the weird vibration in the air. As if something was drawing energy from her. Something or... someone. Roka realized it could be herself, lost in the TARDIS, nothing more but a mere ghost. She took a deep breath and focused on the vibration, concentrated on giving it as much of her essence as she could, although she had no idea if it would do anything at all.

After a while it vanished. The Master glanced back at his book and started to read again, but this time aloud.

Roka swallowed and stepped a little closer, not daring to touch him. Instead she only sat next to him on the sofa and listened for a while.

The world smeared and faded again, time pulled her further backwards. Roka tried to focus on the images, tried to catch one to maybe get some control over where she would land next. And it seemed to work, in a way.

Not in the intended one, but the pull dragged her a lot farther back than the times before, and she almost feared to be stuck now, when finally the images slowed down and she found herself in a hospital. Roka swallowed hard and barely dared to look at the unfolding scene.

It was the day her father had died. He lay there in his hospital bed, morbidly decorated with tubes and all sorts of measuring devices. A small monitor next to him beeped in a slow rhythm. Her child self was there too, standing unseen next to his bed, crying silent unheard and unseen tears.

At that time the glitch had rendered her completely invisible to everyone, unless she physically bumped into them. And even then they couldn't keep her in their minds for longer than a few minutes. She hadn't dared to remind her father, but he had nonetheless.

Maybe people on the brink of death could see through reality and grasp what is invisible to others. Whatever it had been, his hand suddenly was on hers, and when she looked up through tears-filled eyes, he had smiled at her. A smile that made her forget his now bald head, the sunken-in eyes and the ragged breaths he took.

"Don't cry, little Gin," he said softly. "You aren't alone. Not forever."

And then he looked behind her, directly at Roka. A smile sat on his dry lips, he nodded in her direction and then closed his eyes.

Forever.

An arm lay itself around Roka's shoulders. She turned around, saw the Doctor next to her and wrapped both arms around him to hide her tears.

"It's alright," he spoke and gently rubbed her back. "It's alright, dear. But we can't stay here any longer. The cracks are closing. But as long as we stay on the wrong side, they can't do that properly."

She sniveled and took a deep breath, nodded.

"Will they be okay?" she asked. "The others? All the people we love and care for?"

His sad look bore into her eyes. The Doctor didn't have an answer. He couldn't know. The universe would be a different place without them, the outcome unpredictable.

"They will live," he only answered and smiled sadly. "Come, let's go."

He held out his hand to Roka and she carefully took it. It was warm and it reminded her of her father's hand she had held as a child.

They didn't look back.


	30. III - Reunion

Roka had no recollection of how it felt to be trapped in the neverspace. Later the Doctor would tell her that there is no such thing as existing inside it, but if that was the case, how could they have been trapped there? A question she would never get an answer to.

What she remembered was the moment they both had entered the last open crack...

...only to stumble right back into the TARDIS the very next second.

"What the...?" she mumbled confused and hurled around to find the Doctor right behind her. "Are we still not gone yet?"

"Oh, I'm not sure. Not sure at all. Maybe this is a dream, a vision. Maybe we're not experiencing this at all. Maybe it's only..."

"Doctor..." Roka sighed.

He shot straight and clapped his hands together with a smirk. "Yes, yes. Of course. To action, my little impatient human. Let's have a looksie, shall we?"

A bit more carefully than necessary they stepped to the doors and the Doctor left a dramatic pause, his fingers on the handle, barely touching them, before he pushed the doors open. With slow steps he went outside, head tilted upwards to see the glinting stars above their heads. Roka followed and noticed that the surroundings looked like they were standing in a forest clearing, probably on earth.

"Where... is this?" she asked and trod next to the Time Lord.

Her eyes wandered up to the familiar star formations, then to the Doctor, who stood motionless. Only his lips twitched a little, his mouth forming a single, silent word.

"Gallifrey."

"No. This definitely is earth."

He closed his eyes and took in the deepest, saddest sigh a living being could ever do. The moment stretched almost into an eternity, before he spoke up, his voice calm, but barely able to hide his pain.

"Sometimes I visited this clearing, Roka. It's been a long while since I've been here last."

"What's so special about it?"

He pointed upwards, probably at one of the stars. "Do you have the slightest idea how many of those wonderful stars up there are long burned up before their light reaches your eyes here on earth?"

"More than I can count," Roka mumbled. And then she got it. "It's... still there, isn't it? The light of Gallifrey's suns."

"Yes." A sad smile twitched in the corners of his mouth. "Yes, it is." He turned to Roka and now his smile was genuine and widened by the second. "Amy and the Master did it! They brought us back! This is reality. The really real reality!"

"Are you... sure? We've never been gone, have we?"

"Oh, but that's the amazing part, dear." He held up an explaining finger and waved it about. "We can't remember the time we haven't been, because... we haven't been. Brilliant, isn't it?"

She realized he had to be right, but it still felt weird and unnatural. Her heart clenched a little and ached when she thought about how the others had all grown up and lived without knowing about the Doctor. And about her. Although the latter wasn't anything new.

Except for the Master.

How had he fared in the time he hadn't remembered? How long had it taken him? And what had changed during her absence?

She wanted to ask so many questions, wanted to look into his ancient eyes and see the joy of having brought her back to reality. Right now she only wanted to fling her arms around this stupid old Time Lord and hold him so tight, that he would probably hate her for it.

"Okay, let's visit Amy!" the Doctor decided. "She must be waiting for us already. I can literally hear her calling for me."

"Huh? How so?"

He chuckled and winked. "Because she is calling us back right here and now. It already happened, it will happen, and it's happening now. You know... wibbly wobbly and all that." He waved his own words away and ran back to the TARDIS.

Already he wanted to fling some levers and hit buttons, but then he stopped himself and looked Roka up and down.

"What?" she asked impatiently and arched a brow.

"You look rather horrible, I might say," he announced with a thoughtful look and peeked into a tiny mirror on the console. "And I as well. My, my, Doctor, you look like you came back from the dead!"

He chuckled at that and threw a mirthful glance at Roka. She only rolled her eyes and strode to the doors to the inside.

"Then let's get a shower first. If it makes you happy. Well, I'll do at least. Now that you had to mention it, I do feel rather grimy and raggedy." She sighed and went to do what she had told.

When she came back the Doctor was clean as well and already about to push buttons and pull levers and somewhere along the lines he dropped everything and rushed into the wardrobe, dragging Roka along, to get them some proper clothing.

"For the wedding," he explained. "Of course it's the wedding. Makes sense, doesn't it?" He hummed content and dug out a suit and a cylinder for himself. "Something old, something new," he mumbled smiling and held a black dress shirt towards Roka. "Something borrowed," he almost sang, pushing fitting pants and shoes into her arms, "something blue." With that he handed her a tie that had the colour of his TARDIS.

Roka looked at the clothes. "That... looks almost like some school uniform."

"It's only a suit." The Doctor winked and smiled. "Thought you weren't the type for dresses. And I've seen many women looking extremely decent in suits. So try it on!"

"Okay, okay." She shrugged and went into a cabin to change.

To her it still looked a little a uniform, but it really only was a suit, cut to fit a woman's form. The cloth was smooth and mostly black. Only the vest had a midnight sky blue colour, complimenting the neck tie. She looked at herself in the mirror and wasn't quite sure if she liked it or not.

Well, definitely better than a dress, she decided and followed the Time Lord back to the console room, snatching a pair of thin black gloves from a rack on their way to done them quickly.

"Ready?" he asked and beamed at her.

Oh yes, she was. After all these events she only wanted to see everyone well, wanted to celebrate this wedding with them and just forget about endings and big bangs and Pandoricas and what not.

The Master got up from his heels, his hands leaving his head only hesitantly. So many things had changed in a single moment, so many timelines had been rewritten, shifted and puzzled together completely anew.

Like his own.

He remembered the feeling of awaiting someone standing next to him as a child, only to find no one there. He also remembered turning around and seeing the brightly smiling face of a blond boy in that place. He remembered doing things so horribly it even exceeded his own capacity for evil. He also remembered how the Doctor had been there to prevent him from doing exactly that. All those realities suddenly existed in the same place for the Master, even though those that now hadn't happened slowly started to fade and feel more and more like a dream.

But not all of it faded.

"Okay, Doctor. Did I surprise you this time?" Amy's voice asked from outside the TARDIS.

With a smug smile gracing his face the Doctor swung open one door and stepped out to her.

"Er, yeah. Completely astonished. Never expected that. How lucky I happened to be wearing this old thing." He gestured towards his clothes and waved into the room. "Hello, everyone. I'm Amy's imaginary friend... But I came anyway."

All guests were suddenly chatting loudly, confused and whatnot about the appearance of this man they had all thought to be nothing but a figment of Amy's imagination.

Roka couldn't help it. She used the distraction und wrapped her arms around the bride. Amy giggled and hugged her back tightly.

"I'm so glad I could bring you two back," she mumbled. "Oh, but I'm sorry it took me so long! I don't even know why... But it doesn't matter, right?" She beamed at Roka and stepped back a little. "You're here again, that's the important part. And look! The Master made it here too!" Amy cocked a brow. "Wow, weird... I remember him visiting me as a child and telling me stories... but it's like a dream, not like a real memory... I wonder if that really happened."

Roka chuckled and glanced over at the Time Lord. "I'll ask him."

"Yeah, head over. He probably missed you," Amy teased and then went after the Doctor.

The Master stood a good bit to the side, somewhat blending in with the guests and somehow also sticking out as if he were dressed in some neon clothes. He wasn't of course. Instead he wore the favourite attire of this regeneration. A black suit, but without the jacket, and therefore a blood red tie around his neck.

His eyes were glued to Roka, but they were not filled with anything anyone could call _joy_. Roka swallowed hard and felt her mouth going dry. He looked like the man she had met so many years ago, distanced, cold... and so incredibly lonely. Not the slightest hint of warmth was in his eyes, no glinting amusement or playfulness.

His eyes never left her as Roka came closer.

_What happened to him?,_ she wondered.

And then they stood in front of each other, and the air was cold and filled with static electricity. It was unnerving to look at him, the sight let her heart clench and she swallowed once more.

"Hello," Roka muttered shyly.

No response.

She licked her lips because they were so horribly dry and she suddenly didn't know where to look anymore. Finally she peeked up at the Master again and tried another smile.

"I'm back."

He nodded.

His shoulders sank down and a deep, almost ragged breath let his chest rise. It seemed as if all energy vanished out of his body and as if he would simply collapse to the floor at any moment, never to get up from it again.

It pained Roka to see him like this and she stretched a hand out, hesitated for a moment, and placed it over his hearts.

"What happened to you?" she asked carefully.

The Master stared at her hand at his chest, his eyes flickering back and forth between it and her face. So slow as if he didn't have the physical strength anymore, he lifted his hand to enclose hers into it.

Only to push it away from him.

Without another look he walked away, vanished into the crowd and finally left the building even.

Startled about his reaction Roka stood still for a while, unable to comprehend what had just happened. This was not how she had imagined their reunion. Not at all.

"Come outside, I think we need to have a little talk."

Roka turned around and glanced into a friendly smiling face, framed by golden curls. River looked as if she too was a little puzzled, but also willing to maybe shine a light on the situation. They made their way through the celebrating crowd, but exited through another door than the Master had. Here they found themselves in Amy's garden, the shed that had once been destroyed by the Doctor's TARDIS, decorating the untended grass. It was still bright outsight, although evening was drawing closer by the minute, and the aestival air brimmed with heat and the noises of busy insects and birds.

"So... Who are you?" asked River after she had observed Roka for a bit.

"Wh... what?" Roka blinked perplex at the blond woman. "Why do you ask that? Last time we met, you acted as if we'd known each other for ages. But then again..." She pondered over the incident with the angels. "The first time we met, you also didn't know me. But there you told the Doctor you'd remember the Pandorica opening. So it must still be in your future." Puzzled she looked up and cast a confused glance at River. "Which means you can't remember me in your future, but you could in your past? How in the Vortex is _that_ making _any_ sense?"

"Well, that's indeed peculiar." River held up her wrist that wore a Vortex Manipulator and let it wander over Roka for a bit. "There are a few weird readings about you, but nothing that would cause such a thing. Your matter isn't as dense as it should be in a human body."

"Yeah, I know." Roka shrugged. "It used to be an unstoppable process. But the Master prevented it. It's not progressing anymore."

"I see..." For a good minute River only paced up and down, head tilted upwards in thoughts.

"People also tended to forget my entire existence," Roka continued to explain eventually. "Usually within a few minutes. That also stopped, but maybe... it's still affecting _you_ for some reason?"

The curly woman stopped and nodded, then shook her head. "Ah, I don't know. It all makes not much sense. Somehow I do remember you, you know? But not like... this." She waved her hand up and down over Roka's appearance. "You were so much younger, and blond. And you lived here... with Amy."

"Uh... wait. No. I mean, yes. I grew up here, but I've never met Amy in that time."

"She can't remember it either. I just asked her about it. No one here seems to remember you."

"Of course not." Roka shrugged and looked away. She didn't want to think about it. "That glitch made even my parents forget about me. The only person, who was ever able to keep me in his mind was the Master... Long story."

"The Master... well, he is a mystery too." River's eyes glinted sarcastically at those words.

"He acted so weird, right now," Roka muttered and thought back to their encounter. "As if he couldn't bear to see me. But before the Pandorica he... Well, he wouldn't have reacted like _that_."

Again River held up her obviously modified VM and typed in a bunch of things, her eyebrows raising and falling, her mouth eventually dropping open as she gazed back at Roka.

"You never existed. You and the Doctor. Right until now I mean..."

"Yeah, I know that. But shouldn't it have all reverted back to when we had existed?" She arched a questioning brow.

"Yes, yes, but come, take a look."

River waved her over and showed her the small display. There was an official document displayed on it, showing Roka as a child on an unsolved missing children report.

"The Doctor already found that. It's from when my parents forgot me more and more. They must have thought I vanished... and then forgot about it."

"That‘s not the mystery here, dear."

The blond woman tapped a button and revealed another file. It was a normal, not at all weird profile of Roka. Her name, birthday and all that was on it. There also was a picture of her, but here she was older, maybe around eighteen. And all data was there, her school career, a report from the night Josh had gone missing... and that was all. As if she had gone missing too one day.

"But I've never lived that life," Roka mumbled perplex.

"No, _you_ didn't."

Both women spun around at the voice from behind. The Master stood there with his arms protectively folded over his chest, his eyes cold and his look torn from whatever plagued him.

"What.. do you mean?" Roka enquired with a dry mouth.

"Yeah, that I'd love to know too," River seconded.

"It means..." the Master stared up, his eyes glued to the darkening sky, "I'm not and never will be able to forget you. And therefore you never vanished from existence at all, even with the Pandorica."

"But..."

"But..." he repeated darkly, glaring down at her with what could almost be called hate in his eyes, "...it was like with plastic Rory. A duplicate of some sorts, if you want. Created..." There he stopped and turned his head away, unwilling to speak another word.

"Oh, deary," River suddenly muttered, her voice warm and understanding. It reminded Roka of how Amy so often reacted. "Your memories were strong enough to create another version of her, but not to bring the original back, am I right?"

The Master snapped his head back up and shot her a - truly - hateful glare this time.

"No, that's not it." He shook his head and stepped forward, towering over Roka, the scowl still etched into his features. "I did none of this on _purpose_!" he spat. "Stumbled over the other you on accident. Maybe not accident, who knows... our fates are probably too interwoven or whatnot."

"So you met me?"

He nodded and the scowl deepened, his voice suddenly wearing an almost unrecognizable hint of confusion and maybe... desperation? "It felt as if I should remember something important, each time I visited this you. It was right there. Always. But I couldn't remember... I..." His voice broke and the hate vanished from his eyes, got replaced by something much darker and... sadder.

Roka had no idea what to make of this. And especially was she confused about why he seemed so broken all of a sudden.

"Uhm... so there is a second me running around somewhere?" she asked curiously.

The Master moved his lips as if to speak, but then shut his mouth and glared at her, before he almost whispered, "She died... Because she decided to travel with me."

"Oh..." was all Roka could manage to get out after a few seconds of shocked silence. There was a greater story lurking behind this simple explanation, that she could sense.

"Oh..." River repeated. And then her eyes widened and she stared at the Time Lord, suddenly and seemingly understanding something Roka could not. "Oh, you damn selfish bastard, you," she uttered, and it sounded way less accusingly as the words suggested. "You could have brought them back _years_ ago..."

"Yeah..." was all he offered and sharply turned around to leave the women to themselves again.

Roka shook her head and blinked a few times. None of it helped to ease her confusion.

"I don't get it," she finally admitted and peeked at River.

She had an almost teasing smile on her lips now.

"I've seen that expression before," she stated. "Oh, that's a look... what a look he gave you." River chuckled a little, especially when she saw the frown on Roka's face. "What a selfish fool."

Roka grunted annoyed and rolled her eyes. Why was this woman as irritating as Amy? "Spit it out already. This is about me after all!"

"Oh dear, oh dear." The curly woman stepped next to Roka and laid an arm around her shoulders. "I think he _chose_ not to remember. Subconsciously maybe, but nonetheless he did." She threw a short side glance at the still puzzled Roka. "Don't you get it? It was perfect in a way. There was a version of you who was able to lead the live you never could. Without being forgotten and all that. And a version of you that seems to have been willing to follow him. Maybe even... loved him."

And finally she understood too. The whole picture suddenly snapped into place, even though she didn't have all the details. Somehow they had met, under completely different circumstances, but had still found together. This other her had even decided to give up this live, just to travel with the Master.

And then she had died.

And he still remembered this alternate live, with this alternate Roka...

She swallowed hard and left River's side. Her doubled existence probably was the reason the blond woman couldn't quite remember her anymore after the Pandorica. It made only halfway sense to Roka, but there was no other explanation to it. It also wasn't the most important matter at hand right now.

"I have to find him," she explained and rushed away.

By now the sky was clad in a deep, burning pink, the sun drawing a fire over the horizon as if it wanted to burn the whole planet.

Roka pondered about where the Master could be, but she didn't have to look long. He simply stood leaned against one of the decorative trees in front of Amy's house, glancing up at the window that belonged to the red-head. He long heard her steps, but didn't react until she stood almost next to him. Only then did he turn his head and revealed all the sadness and pain he had been hiding before.

"You cursed me," he uttered. "There was a whole new life, a whole new me, but all I did was..."

To fall in love with her... _again_.

"Or maybe I cursed myself," the Master added and pushed his hands into his pant pockets. "Would have been so much easier to forget you after Gallifrey. To let you vanish. To not bother if you become an undying ghost. Why the hell did I ever make this _my_ problem in the first place?" His brows knitted together and his nose wrinkled almost in disgust at her sight.

Roka wasn't mad about those words. She surely wouldn't react differently after an experience like that. It still hurt. But who was she to complain? He had chosen her duplicate because she had still been able to reciprocate his feelings. He had gained what he had wished for all this time. Only to lose it and get... _her_ as a replacement.

"I... can leave," she eventually said, pushing a dead leave around with her foot. "Me being here only hurts you." She shook her head and took a step back. "I don't want that, Master."

"It's fading," he said quietly, staring up at the bleeding sky. "Soon this life will be nothing but the faint memory of a dream."

Roka nodded, unsure what to respond. She remembered her own Vortex Manipulator. The Doctor had used it to control the Pandorica, but since that technically had never happened, she still wore the device. A slight smile creped onto her lips and she glanced up at the Master.

"Thank you," she said, "for finding me. For giving me a real life. You did more than you probably know. And now I can look forward with a smile again." A sigh escaped her, deep and sad. It was hard to say goodbye, but if not now, then probably never. "Well... maybe I won't be smiling that much for a little while. I don't want to leave you. But, I guess it's-"

The Master turned around, got his hands out of his pockets, his eyes unreadable.

And then he suddenly pulled at her and drew Roka into his arms, held her so tight it made her gasp. There was no room left to move, so she rested her head against his chest, breathed in his familiar scent and listened to his racing hearts.

It took Roka a few seconds to overcome her surprise, but then she slid her arms around his torso and held the Master as firmly as she was able to, eager to let him forget what he had experienced in this alternate timeline.

"Don't you ever dare leaving," he uttered into her ear. "I don't allow it."

His embrace was so warm, his presence so soothing, Roka wanted nothing more but for this moment to last forever. Her own heart matched his frantic rhythm, her head felt light, almost a little drowsy.

And in that moment she found something in herself she had thought to be lost, but had actually been there all along. She would not tell the Master about it. Not yet. Not when his wounds were still fresh and needed time to heal. But she would be there for him, she would stay close. And in the end they maybe would be able to fix what had been broken so long ago.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Phew... That whole Pandorica thing turned out quite lengthy, didn't it? ;D  
This whole mess was planned to be a lot shorter, lol. But my brain was against it and the chapters kept growing and growing... *whistles innocently*
> 
> Always loved that episode though. It has so much... power in it. There wasn't much about it I would change, but I also don't like plain rewrites, so I took this "backflash" route instead. ;D
> 
> Also... the Master wants to let you all know he will come and eat you, if you don't leave a review. ¯\\_(ツ)_/¯
> 
> Next issue: fluff galore! Be prepared! 👀


	31. III - Cookies and mistletoes

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So here is a - just a tiiiiiiiny little bit late - Christmas chapter. ;D
> 
> Enjoy!

After - no, actually _during_ their wedding - Amy and Rory decided to stay with _team TARDIS_. At the mention of this name the Doctor giggled happily, while the Master only groaned annoyed. Roka liked it somehow, although they were quite the horrible _team_.

For a good while the not-so-sober-anymore Amy had fun running around the TARDIS in her wedding dress, dancing and singing around Rory, who was as tipsy as her, but still too shy to be too outgoing. Promptly the Doctor let his ship play some old school love songs from somewhere around the fifties and had fun doing useless moves and wriggles with the pair.

Of course the Master didn't join them. Roka only heard him mumble something along the lines of, _I'm far too old and evil for that_. She chuckled at him, but also wasn't too eager to get spun around by the celebrating folks. It was fun though to just watch, so she sat next to the Master in a jump seat and, well, did exactly that. Watch.

"Never do that again," the Master suddenly demanded, his mouth so close to her ear that it sent a surprised shiver through her. "Just running away, sacrificing yourself. That was horribly stupid."

Roka turned her head and rubbed her ear with a scowl. "We wouldn't be here otherwise, remember?"

"That weird River person would have gone instead." He shrugged. "No one needs that one anyway."

Yeah, she would have done it. But...

"...I thought _you_ would bring me back," Roka admitted honestly and glanced at her folded hands in her lap.

She hadn't wanted for it to sound like an accusation, but it probably did anyway.

"I... that wasn't a conscious choice," he snapped back and sulked, eyes glued to the ceiling.

Roka didn't respond to that and they both continued to say nothing to each other, until the Master had enough and vanished through the doors to the inside. Not much later and his place got occupied by a panting and red flushed Amy. She giggled and nudged Roka.

"What's with that sour face?" she asked, her voice audibly altered by alcohol. "Everything went great. We're aaaall back and safe and married. That's _great_, isn't it?"

"No," Roka grumbled and continued to frown at her shoes.

"Aaaaw, come on! What is it?" Amy leaned over and hugged her with one arm. "Tell your big sis."

"I... I don't know." She tried to push Amy's arm away, but failed miserably.

"Ooooh, you do know. I can sense it."

"No, you're just drunk." Roka rolled her eyes and wished she would have gotten drunk too. Maybe she should. And then go after the Master and kick his butt for... for... "Yeah, for what?" she mumbled confused and irritated.

"Hahaaaa, I know!" Amy called out, receded her arm and pointed a finger at Roka. "You thought it would be the Master who would bring us all back. But it was meheeeee!"

Was it the truth? Maybe it was. Roka had no idea what actually made her so angry. But Amy's words right now... they stirred something in her, made the anger well up even more. No... not even anger.

"He... replaced me," she eventually mumbled. Good thing she had told Amy a short version of the events before. Explaining them to her in that drunken state would have yielded nothing helpful for sure.

Amy giggled and leaned against Roka. "Jealous? That's dumb, you know? You can't be jealous of yourself after all. Or can you?"

"I'm not...!" Roka pushed her away and got to her feet. "Why would I even? It makes no sense! And... and... ugh!"

She flung her hands in the air and let them fall to her side in a helpless gesture. It was unbearable to see the happy Amy giggling in her dishevelled wedding dress and the two men having so much fun, while her own head was so confused. So she rushed away and into her room to maybe find some sleep at least.

The Master vanished. No one noticed it at first, but after what had to be a few days Roka finally found it in her to go to his room and knock. It still was the same one he had chosen for himself when the Doctor had imprisoned him in his TARDIS for a while. (Her memory wandered to the day they had spent hours searching for something the Master wasn't too picky to choose.) She remembered that it looked a little like a quite simple quarter that could stem from Star Trek and was filled with lots of miniatures of spaceships and planets and what not. There also were two big windows, showing the universe outside of them.

When Roka entered, she found the room to be completely deserted. Some books were lying around and a smaller table was completely filled with taken apart devices. Next to it was something that could be a highly advanced computer, but its monitors were dark.

Back in the console room Roka asked everyone if they had seen the Master, but no one had.

"Maybe he left," the Doctor pondered. "Didn't he want to do that anyway some time ago?"

"But he decided to stay," Roka explained a little worried and felt a nasty sting of fear.

"Well... he can call his TARDIS pretty much everywhere. Could have done that when we were visiting London recently. Haven't landed since, so..."

"Can we go back there?" she enquired. "Just for a while. And... you know... wait?"

The Doctor agreed and got the time machine to their destination. They waited for hours, everyone minding their own business. Eventually Amy strolled back into the console room, finding Roka perched on a jump seat with a book in hands that she wasn't even reading.

"You think, he's coming back?" Amy asked.

"He has to!" Roka slammed the book shut and tossed it next to her. "For frick's sake, he can't just run away like that!" she called out exasperated.

"Who's running away?" a voice sneered from behind, making everyone jump.

Roka spun around and frowned at the amused face of the Master, who was just about to close the doors behind him. He wore a black coat and had his collar fully turned up to keep back the snow that was contrasting his clothes.

"_You_ of course! Where were you?"

"Since when do I have to give account for that?" The grin on his face broadened and couldn't have been nastier. "Last time I checked, I wasn't a prisoner here. Meaning I come and go as I please."

"And simply expected we would return to London anyway, so you could hop back aboard?" the Doctor wanted to know, appearing out of nowhere as if he had sensed the Master returning.

The other Time Lord shrugged. "Yup. I know you can't resist Christmas time. Wouldn't have taken you that long to return there anyway. And if not..." he pursed his lips mockingly at the Doctor. "Your soft heart wouldn't have allowed for leaving me behind, right?"

The Doctor groaned exasperated. "Why in the universe do I even let you stay here?!"

"Because your life would be dull and colourless without me," the Master purred back happily.

At that the Doctor rubbed his eyes, his whole posture showing exactly what he held of that statement. "Next time why don't you just inform me that you need some time and I'll simply wait?" he offered impatiently.

"Naaaah, too boring."

That earned him another sigh from the bowtie wearing Time Lord. The Master only snickered and made his way to the doors inside.

It was indeed Christmas out there. It had been the reason they had visited in the first place, although Roka had no idea what year exactly it was. Probably the seventies or so. The Master walked past her and let a small paper bag fall into her hands. Perplex she looked inside and found some short pastry cookies there.

"Thought you liked those." The Master smirked amused and went to his room without another word.

"You know," the Doctor drawled, halfway in thoughts, "How about we celebrate some Christmas on our own? Stay here for a bit and do all the glittery, fun decorating stuff and all that."

"Oh yes!" Amy exclaimed. "I mean... I married in the middle of summer just a few days back. But hey... who would say no to some extra Christmas, right, Roka?"

The woman in question looked up and around, then nodded. Her anger hadn't subsided completely yet, but those cookies were indeed delicious. And the fact that the Master had gotten them specially for her was at least a tiny consolation.

Roka's ire was gone quickly as soon as they began to decorate the console room with lots of shining and blinking Christmas things. They had glass spheres and candy and wooden figures, fir branches and lots of candles in all colours. And of course the Doctor had countless stories about what people in different times would use to celebrate this day.

"In the year 9372 on the planet Ohfhara they will mostly use painted apples. Apples... can you imagine? They grow wonderfully on that planet, so it's the cheapest resource everyone's got."

Rory stood behind Amy and Roka, balancing a big carton in his arms that was filled to the brim with glittery stuff. All of his protests hadn't reached his wife and so he now had the questionable job of standing there and holding out the decorations for the two women to grab.

Eventually the Master strolled back in and stopped dead his tracks as he saw what was happening.

"Oh no. I'm so not going to participate in _that_!" he exclaimed, but stayed put nonetheless. "What in the Vortex are you even thinking, Doctor? That's a _human_ festivity. Why would we even want to-"

"Because it's fuhuuuuun!" Amy sang and shot him a joyful grin. "Even you mighty and noble Time Lords can celebrate. And if not..." She chuckled and continued in a mock half-whisper, "I really feel sorry for you."

Roka too glanced at him and when she saw his sulky face, she couldn't help but smile, although she hastily turned her head away to hide it.

Later that day they went out to go shopping in London. The Doctor organized some money of the respective time and let his guests have fun outside.

The newlywed pair stuck together the whole time, clinging at each other as if there would be no tomorrow. They looked so happy, laughing and chatting and just being silly. Roka observed them, feeling like some third wheel, but she wouldn't complain. They had all the right in the world to behave like this. And it was fun to see London in its seventies, so she had enough to occupy her mind with.

If they would celebrate Christmas, it also meant they needed presents for everyone. For Amy and Rory she got a handcrafted, wooden plate with their names engraved into it, that they could hang on their door room in the TARDIS. For the Doctor she bought a stack of colourful magazines. She knew he loved to collect these things from all times. She only wasn't sure whether or not to get something for the Master. He probably would hide sulking in his room while they were celebrating.

The thought let her smile. It was funny how someone so intelligent could sometimes behave like a human teenager. In the end she got a pair of cuff buttons with lapis lazuli stones on them. The dark blue stones were intervened and dotted with golden speckles, making them look a little like star patterns.

As evening lay its black cloak over the city she found herself alone at the river Thames. The others had already gone back, but she enjoyed the atmosphere of the city too much to leave yet. For quite some time she only sat there, staring out into the water, her mind wandering all sorts of places. And only when she got aware of the rapidly dropping temperatures did she decide to go back and finally get some food into her stomach.

The next day the Doctor went out with Rory alone. Amy had wanted to bake cookies and Roka had found some parts on the console that needed repairing. During the years that she had travelled with the Doctor she had learned quite a bit about the time machine. Not enough to fly her, but at least enough to do some basic maintenance here and there.

She didn't notice at first that the Master joined her in the console room. He only stood there, arms folded, and watched her working.

"Mhm... maybe I _should_ have let you lay hands on her," he muttered eventually.

When the two of them had travelled together, he had always refused to do anything the like.

Smirking proudly Roka looked up. "That happens when you always underestimate me."

"Heh, yeah." He chuckled and stepped next to her. "But this will go a lot faster if I help."

"Uhm... I can do that alone, really," she ensured, knowing he only wanted to help to be around her, or because he was bored. Or both. "Go and do... whatever it is you do all day."

She turned away and attended to another part, farther away from him.

"You're still mad," the Master assessed calmly and picked up a screwdriver.

"No..." Roka protested, but all words left her before she had actually found them. "I'm not mad, really not. I... I don't even know myself." She sighed and shook her head. "It's just all weird and confusing."

And maybe she really was a tiny little bit mad. Even though she had denied it vehemently, but the thought of simply having been replaced bothered her more than it should. To make it worse, she knew that Amy was totally right. It was stupid to be jealous of another version of _herself_. But each time she thought about it, the feeling returned and she wanted nothing more but to punch the Master.

She had no idea how much time passed while they silently continued with the repairs. At some point Amy strolled in, sat on a seat and watched them for a bit, how they moved all around the console table, fixing and dusting and cutting things, while being surround by Christmas decoration.

Eventually she chuckled and it sounded mischievous, so Roka shot her a questioning look.

"Oh, it's nothing." Amy could barely hold back a wide grin. "Maybe except for the fact that you two are standing directly below... that." She pointed above their heads.

Both looked up at the same time and saw the small mistletoe, wrapped in a red ribbon, hanging right above them. Roka hissed out a "damn you, Amy," while the Master only looked confused and raised an eyebrow at the plant.

"In case you're not familiar with this human tradition," Amy started and could barely hold back another chuckle, "If two people happen to find themselves under a mistletoe-"

"Amy, just leave it be," Roka groaned and wanted to step away.

"Oi, don't you leave! That's calling for a disaster."

"I don't think..."

"What's this about?" the Master enquire irritated. "I'm not familiar with your silly human superstition."

"When people find themselves under a mistletoe, they have to kiss!" Amy hastened to explain with a wide grin. "It will bring ill luck, if they don't."

Roka rolled her eyes and folded her arms in front of her chest, peeking at the Master from the side. Even though she wasn't used to celebrating Christmas, she was rather certain the thing about ill luck was made up.

"Is that so?" The Master stroked his chin thoughtfully and didn't ever bother hiding the mischief from his gaze. He turned around fully and looked down at Roka, one hand reached out, grabbing her by her collar to draw her almost against him.

She pushed both hands against his chest, a scowl etched deeply into her face. Her irritation lasted only for a split second though, and got quickly replaced by a whole bunch other feelings that threatened to overwhelm her. Standing so close to the Master, feeling the warmth emanating from his body, his face, as he leaned down to her, so close, his hazel eyes mesmerizing in a way completely unique to him, it all made her head spin her cheeks glow red.

The Master tenderly stroked a finger along her jaw line, rested it under her chin and leaned even a little closer, head tilted to have better access. But he stopped, just a breath away, only to smirk at her.

"Too bad I promised not to do anything you wouldn't let me," he uttered, his voice laced with a mixture of sarcasm and regret.

Roka took in a breath, hoping he wouldn't notice how it hitched a little. He was so close, all it would need would be for her to... close her eyes halfway and stretch just a tiny little bit. Her lips brushed against his, the sensation making her heart race almost painfully. A second passed, distended into an eternity. Roka got all her courage together and finished what she had started before the Master could even react properly, leaning in fully and kissing him. Once. And only once, before she retreated already.

The puzzlement on his face made her almost laugh, almost forget how madly her heart raced. It was seldom to see the Master so absolutely clueless about a situation. Roka shrugged and shyly turned away, mumbling something about _tradition_.

The day they wanted to celebrate they contemplated where to get dinner for the evening. It had to be something special, the Doctor decided and all heads turned towards the Master, who was just strolling into the console room.

"What?" he growled.

"You're actually quite good with cooking," the Doctor remarked with a smirk.

The other Time Lord rolled his eyes extensively. "You were too, once. How about y-"

"_No!_" Roka and Amy called out together.

"He has a horrible _taste_!" Amy deadpanned. "When I first met him, he ate fish fingers with custard!"

"Yeah, and tastes great!" the Doctor whined.

"And I remember very vividly the few attempts he made at cooking while I lived here," Roka added. "Was a different regeneration, but still..."

There was a mean and nasty grin flashing on the Master's face. His arms were folded over his chest and it was clear how much he enjoyed having his old enemy being called out like that. It probably, Roka assumed, was also the reason he changed his mind.

"Okay, I'll prepare something," he agreed and rubbed his hands together before his eyes landed on Rory. "And since _you_ reside under the living, non-plastics again, you'll help me!"

"Wh... why?" Rory whined and cast a help seeking glance at his wife.

"Guess you made an impression the last time you helped," she nonchalantly, and non-helpingly replied, put her arms over his shoulders and pressed a short but sweet kiss to his lips. "Be a good husband and make us a great dinner, will you?" she begged teasingly.

Rory sighed and smiled a little. "Okay, okay. If my wife says so."

"She does." Amy winked and released him.

The Master, admittedly, liked having Rory around. The boy was quiet and astonishingly helpful, even though a little useless without proper instructions. But he possessed a certain sensitivity that a lot of humans lacked. Could be the reason Amy had decided to marry this, otherwise meek and boyish person.

Well, okay, he had spent two millennia watching over the Pandorica. That certainly was a thing the Master found himself admiring the man for. _He_ wouldn't have done that. For no one! At least not in person. And not with endangering his own life in the process.

Or would he?

While the goose was baking in the oven, the Master glared into the air, sunken into his own mind and the thoughts within.

On some level he had decided to simply replace the person he loved with a cheap copy.

Was he really that stupid? Or desperate? Or... he couldn't find a proper word for it. The Master couldn't even re-enact his own actions in that alternate timeline. Had he done so because he hadn't remembered the real Roka? Or had it been a conscious choice on some level?

"What's bothering you?" a quiet voice asked, tearing him out of his thoughts.

The Master blinked, getting himself back into the present moment, where he got aware of Rory. Yeah, that boy truly was sensitive to other people's emotions.

"Do you remember being a centurion?" he asked.

Rory's face was unreadable, although his eyes moved about quite a bit, as if he had to search for the memory.

"In some ways, yes. It's... snippets. Like from dreams. Not really like memories, I guess. Why?"

"Would you do it again?"

"Yes," Rory replied immediately and without the slightest hint of hesitation in his voice or his eyes.

Visibly perplex the Master blinked at him before another thought formed in his head. "Would you have done so hadn't she remembered you?"

"Uh... yeah, of course." A soft, affectionate smile played around his lips.

The Master only scowled and proceeded to glare at the ceiling. For a while it seemed as if Rory wanted to say something, his mouth opening and closing a few times, before he turned away and watched over the baking food, probably too afraid of the Master to speak forth.

He snickered at that. "You spent two thousand years protecting a box. But you're too afraid to speak what's on your mind. I'm flattered."

Rory's mouth dropped open and closed again a second later. "I... uh... It's just..."

"Yes?" the Master asked sweetly, enjoying that at least one person was still scared of him.

"I... it's not your fault, you know," Rory blurted out. "S... sorry, Amy told what happened. I err... uhm... Just wanted to say..." He took a deep breath and straightened, suddenly displaying his centurion self. "Even when your consciousness couldn't remember... I'm sure you still knew, deep down, this alternate life would be better... for Roka, without the glitch. And for you too, of course. You both would have been... happy. Tha... that's a good thing. A good reason."

Puzzled the Master blinked at Rory, his arms unfolding on their own and falling to his sites. And for once he refrained from threats and being snarky. Instead he actually smiled, albeit it was a somewhat pitying expression, because that boy really believed he would understand _anything_.

But the smile turned to an honest one entirely on its own and the Master huffed. "Yeah... it _was_ a good reason."

They hadn't awaited too little. By the time dinner was ready they were all almost starving, because the Master made sure to take his time. Maybe a little more of it than necessary.

All of them gathered in an extra room the Doctor had selected. It resembled some kind of restaurant, although there was only one big table in the middle. But the floor had a thick carpet, the walls wore fine, red wallpaper and some tapestry and chandeliers were hanging from the ceiling. From an unseen place there was music playing softly in the background. Christmas songs from all over the universe (The Doctor had even made sure to select only songs that were pleasant to human ears) filled the room.

And of course there was a large Christmas tree nearby.

To their surprise the Master didn't vanish and rather joined them, albeit a bit silent and seemingly absent. Or was he observing? Roka watched him here and there, curious as to what might be going on in that head of his. Since she sat next to him, she eventually nudged him to meet a slightly puzzled gaze.

"Come on, laugh a little" she teased with poked out tongue. "That's a really fine meal, you should be proud."

"Pffff, that's nothing," he smugly waved her words away. "If you hadn't confined me to human dishes this would be a lot better."

Roka chuckled. "You really are in the wrong profession, you know that?"

He smirked back amused and picked up his wine glass to stir the liquid a little. "Was enough to have that bar once."

Right. A past regeneration of his had owned a bar on a trading moon. He had told her about it. She even had met this regeneration of his by chance, once. And...

"I went there," she told him with a smile that grew wider when she saw the surprise in his eyes. "In disguise, of course. You wouldn't remember. I... just wanted to see it."

"So?" There was an almost melancholic expression on his face, his voice soft and only curious. "Did you like it?"

Roka nodded. "A lot. It's so loud and full, and there are so many different species around. If it wouldn't have caused a paradox I would have asked you for a job." She giggled and closed her eyes to fully remember that evening.

The lights in there had been dim and mostly blue and purple in colour. It gave the place a futuristic, but somehow also welcoming atmosphere. Smoke from all kinds of alien tobacco had thickened the air, the smell of alcohol mixing with that of sweat and rain and perfumes. Always was there music playing in the back. Loud enough to be heard over the crowd, but not so loud to make conversations impossible.

She had still been a glitch back then, so no one had noticed her for the most part. Sometimes she had contemplated activating the coat she had been given from Jack Harkness. It had somewhat enabled people to remember her, although only if she stayed in their line of sight. But this night she had only wanted to watch and to soak in the atmosphere of this place.

And she had also watched the Master's past regeneration being a bartender, chatting with all sorts of folks, or forcefully throwing them out into the streets if they wouldn't behave. He instigated at least as much fights as he mediated, and if someone wouldn't pay for their drinks, he let them walk out butt-naked, either by force or mostly by hypnosis. A lesson they certainly wouldn't forget.

At the end of the night, Roka had been one of the last guests and...

"I do remember," he suddenly spoke softly.

Roka returned to the present and blinked puzzled at his smiling face.

"You were one of the last guests and we played the piano together. You refused to take that hood down, though. Now I know why." He chuckled.

She remembered. Her head hadn't been too clear anymore from all the alcohol, or otherwise she wouldn't have risked it. But in that moment, when their eyes had met and he had cast a smug smile at her, nodding to his right to join him on the seat, she hadn't cared. Not that she could actually play, but they had fun nonetheless.

"And now I know why you seemed so horribly sad," the Master muttered.

Yeah, she had lost him after the incidents with the Time Lords returning and all that. And then she had been there in this bar, in the past, knowing she wasn't allowed to get too close to the man she would later come to love, because it would alter their timelines.

Roka glanced up and felt her eyes filling with tears at those memories. It still hurt. This wound would take forever to heal, she realized. So many decades, and over a century of being alone and broken couldn't be mended within a few months.

The Master stretched out hand and ruffled through her short hair, before he returned his attention to his meal.

Later that evening they went back to the console room, where now stood a few sofas to make everything more comfortable. They told jokes and stories and played cards and had a good evening together, before it was finally time.

"Presents now!" the Doctor declared and shot to his feet, clapping his hands together excitedly. "Me first!"

He rushed to the tree and retrieved a few clumsily wrapped packages from underneath it.

"I have no idea at all what you would actually like, so I thought it's the gesture that counts and got pullovers for y'all!" he explained happily.

And really, each present had one of those knitted, cliché Christmas pullovers in them. The wool though was extraordinarily soft, so Roka decided she liked it and wore hers right on the spot, together with Amy.

"Oh, well, I actually knew exactly what to get for _you_," the Doctor said happily and handed a smaller present to the Master.

The blond Time Lord unfolded his arms and glared puzzled at the wrapped rectangle as if he had no idea at all what to do with a present. His eyes shot up and met the Doctor's. "Why?" he only demanded, his voice low.

The Doctor's shoulders visibly slumped a little and his eyes got sad. Only Roka noticed because she sat so close. She also was the only one beside the Master to hear the softly spoken words.

"Because I haven't always been there for you when I should have."

With that he pushed the package into the other one's hands and rushed away. For a few moments the Master stared at the present in puzzlement, then he carefully opened the paper and got out a book that looked as if it were as old as time itself. Not too thick or big, but with a delicate cover. With fascination in his eyes he tenderly stroked a finger over the filigree letters and opened the pages to take a peek inside.

"What is it?" Roka asked, her curiosity finally winning over.

"Gallifreyan fairy tales," the Master mumbled with a smile. "They are quite scary compared to human ones. Used to read them to my daught..." He stopped abruptly and closed the book forcefully, looking for a moment as if he wanted to throw it away. But in the end he carefully lay it aside.

Roka said nothing, knowing all too well that he avoided _this_ subject at all cost. Only by chance had she learned that he once had a child, and what had happened to her.

Amy and Rory had gotten scarves for all. Wide and warm and Roka's had a plaid pattern. She was the last to hand out presents and enjoyed watching everyone being thrilled about what they got. Of course the Master hadn't brought anything at all, still rebelling against the whole festivity - and completely ignoring the fact that he had spent the whole evening with the group, so far.

Roka sat back down on the sofa next to him and handed him his present. Grumbling something inaudible, but clearly sulkily, the Master unwrapped it and glanced at the cuff buttons in his hand.

"They looked a bit like stars, so I though..." Roka trailed of and watched how he applied them immediately to his black dress shirt.

"More like Vincent's night sky," he remarked, but didn't say anything else about it. Not even a thanks, of course.

Roka didn't bother. It was clear he liked them, and that was enough.

She joined the group in another few rounds of cards before she simply leaned against the backrest and closed her eyes. For the rest of the evening she decided to only watch, being slightly overwhelmed already by so much social interaction. That, too, would need quite some time to get better.

It was fun enough to watch the Master trying to cheat at every possible occasion - and succeeding with it every so often. Much to the dismay of everyone else. Not that the Doctor was that much better though. He only was blabbering so much that no one paid much attention to what his hands were doing.

Eventually Roka got nudged into the side and she shot straight, glancing around confused and a bit dazed.

"You fell asleep, little crow," the Master stated amused.

She looked around and found the Doctor and Rory having a deep, philosophical discussion about something Roka didn't bother to find out. It seemed Amy had already headed to bed. Yawning she rubbed the sleep out of her eyes and glanced back at the Master, who seemed in thoughts.

Roka smirked. "So, what's the big plan this time?"

His right eyebrow shot up, but he didn't look at her. "What plan?"

"Och, that one to take over the whole universe." Roka shrugged with a smirk. "Can't tell me there is none."

Now he looked at her, an impish smile twitching the corners of his mouth. "Sounds like you _want_ me to have one."

It definitely was back, she noticed. That twinkle of ideas and schemes and the will to conquer each and every star out there. When Roka looked into those ancient, hazel eyes she always had the feeling as if she would fall right into a pool of stars. His hearts belonged to them and always would, that she knew. And it made her own heart jump to know that, despite this fact, she had a place in them as well.

"Wouldn't mind," she answered.

"Heh, and what then? Running around like in the old days and preparing everything together?" His gaze was fixated on her face, aware of every twitching muscle in it.

"Yeah, that was fun."

There it was again. A smile on her lips, as if it were the most natural thing, although it had been nothing but a faint memory for so many years of her life. She had been only a hollow. Not only after her travels, but also when she had first met the Master. Being a ghost and mostly confined to the TARDIS - because going outside always meant the danger of being left behind and losing her home - had left her that way.

But when she had met him, had faced the danger his whole person radiated, had looked into his fascinating eyes for the first time, had felt the curiosity sparking, had wanted to find out who he truly was... it had changed her. Other people probably wouldn't call her a good person for some of the things she had done... or hadn't. But good and evil were only concepts in the minds of people anyway.

It had sparked the urge to be near the Master, to travel the countless stars together with him, to abandon morals and rules.

And with every passing day this urge started to grow once more.

"How about we leave?" she asked quietly, so the other two wouldn't hear it.

"Where to?"

She shrugged and looked away, drawing her feet onto the sofa to wrap her arms around her knees.

"Everywhere."

A low chuckle made her look at the Master once more. He leaned closer to her, not at all hiding the mischief on his face.

"I'm not one to take companions. You should know."

"Yeah, I remember." Roka unfolded her arms and turned a little to him, only to poke a finger at his chest. "It would be stupid, right?" She poked him once more. "And this time it would have consequences."

Her heart beat faster against her ribcage, time coming almost to a halt, while she kept eye contact and waited. Thoughts were ticking through his mind, one by one, visible but unknown to her.

"Not so long ago you wanted nothing but to get away from me as fast as possible," he eventually said.

Roka cast her eyes down. "Because I was an idiot."

"Yeah, you still are." When she looked back up, he smiled. "Travelling with me isn't... pleasant," he recounted his words from the last time she had asked him to come along.

"Mhm... if you say so." She chuckled, "I don't mind," and poked him again.

The Master grabbed her finger and grinned wickedly. It wasn't the evil grin from so long ago, not promising to hurt her, like it had back then. Danger was still radiating from the Master whenever he wanted, but now it wasn't directed at her anymore. He opened her hand, palm facing upwards, while his other hand reached into his west pocket to get out a tiny box that he gave to her.

Perplex Roka blinked at her hand and opened the box to find a single delicately worked ear stud in it. A tiny, silver-coloured crow.

"Thought, since I threw away the only one you had..." He picked up the stud and loosened the clasp.

Once she had gotten her ear gristle pierced by his laser screwdriver - involuntarily. But the ear stud he had given to her had showed her when she would have a small visibility frame for other people. A gadget, not more, but to her it had been of value. When they had reunited and the glitch had been gone he had taken and thrown it away without bothering to ask.

Now he leaned closer and carefully applied the stud to her ear.

"I'm afraid there is no useful gadget inside this time," he said with an sarcastic undertone. "But it suits you anyway."

"Th... thanks," Roka mumbled, feeling her cheeks glow pink.

His hands on her ear were warm and he was so close to her, it didn't help much with her pulse. For some reason she remembered that Time Lords actually had a much lower inner body temperature, but their skin was as warm as that of humans. Weird actually, but she liked feeling him so close, wanted to lean a little at his side and dose of off for a while.

When the ear stud was in place he retreated only a little, mumbling close to her ear, "You'd really travel with me?"

Roka nodded, her heartbeat fast. She turned her head slightly to look at him, finding a thoughtful and also amused twinkle in his eyes. He shifted slightly, one of his hands dropping something light on her head.

"I'll think about it." The mischievous twinkling got stronger as he swiftly leaned closer and breathed a feather light kiss onto her lips. "Merry Christmas."

The Master got up and left, before Roka could even react, too perplex and flushed for anything at all. She watched as he went deeper inside the TARDIS, her finger tracing her bottom lip as if she could somehow bring back that short sensation. The Movement let something fall from her head and into her hand and it made her smile.

It was a mistletoe.


	32. III - Separate ways

"And here is the data," the Doctor announced and pulled out a small chip from the TARDIS console. "Just put it in your tablet. Should work."

Roka took the chip with a thankful nod and did what she was told. Her device started to boot up a small window that showed numerous sets of data. Numbers, dates, coordinates, information regarding planets, life forms and the breathability of the air.

"It's extraordinarily interesting," the Doctor blabbered on, "It's a bit like dust, spread everywhere, hard to catch harder to see, makes you sneeze, though not pleasant. The dust, I mean, not the data..."

Behind him a man stepped closer and leaned over to take a peek at Roka's tablet. It was Michail, one of the brothers they were chasing at the school festival. He had fully recovered and had agreed to help deciphering the data, while his brother Steppan was about to organize some other event for the school.

"We were never able to explain those readings," he mused. "It's like a puzzle, burst into a million pieces and scattered over the whole universe."

"I think it's some kind of trace." Roka adjusted some settings and scrolled through a list of coordinates. "But if it was left intentionally or not, I can't say. Probably not." Her finger moved over a bunch of pictures. "It's so scattered, there seems no pattern at all to it."

"Oh, there might be none," the Doctor chimed in and took the tablet from her hands. "Something was probably travelling. And it leaves its energy signature at those places. It's always the same, look." He pointed a number that was present at each set of coordinates. "Oh.... oooooh.... wait. Can that be...?" The Doctor pulled the tablet almost directly in front of his eyes.

A pair of glasses appeared in the tight space between his face and the tablet and the Doctor looked up surprised and into the sarcastically smirking face of the Master.

"You always had bad eyes, Doctor. Doesn't seem to get better with old age, eh?" he mocked.

"And why do _you_ have some of these?" The Doctor snatched the glasses, put them on his nose and continue to sight the data with a slightly opened mouth and actually a good bit farther away from his face now. A second later he grinned and glanced at the Master. "My, those glasses aren't the weakest. Don't tell me you _need_ them."

The other Time Lord pursed his lips, scowling, and crossed his arms. "No, I don't," he snapped eventually. "It's just more comfortable to read with'em."

"Ah, well..." the Doctor looked back at the tablet, "you're not going to get any younger either, Master."

"Ugh! Don't do the _'I'm older' _thing again!" he snarled. "It's so annoying! And there you wonder why I want to end you!"

"Shush!" the Doctor held up a finger. "This could be important."

"_Don't shush me!_" the Master barked and grabbed the Doctor by his tie. "I'm getting impatient with you, so watch your step."

"_You_ begged me to take you along!" the Doctor grumbled back sourly with puckered brows.

For several more seconds the Master glared hatefully at his oldest enemy's face, then released his tie and turned away with folded arms. Roka wasn't quite so sure what to make of it. At first it had seemed as if the two would get along surprisingly well, but the more time passed the more it got evident how much the Master still despised the Doctor. Had he really endured his presence only because of... her?

The thoughts got interrupted as the Doctor continued what he had wanted to say before the fight. He pointed at a set of data he had separated from the rest.

"This is the date and the coordinates, the exact match! Remember? When we were in Edinburgh and something made you all act so strange?"

This got back the Master's attention. He unwillingly turned his head and listened.

"It's in here. Whatever was at your parents' house, it also was there that day. Maybe... even responsible. There, see? It's where the Master found Amy and Rory and this here where I found you on the roof. This can't be coincidence..."

The other Time Lord poked his head over the tablet and tapped another set of coordinates. "The day and time we found the dead body in Venice," he uttered towards Roka.

She let out a long breath. "Okay, this is getting weirder and weirder. Where do we start? How do we get a pattern from all this?"

None of the men around seemed to have any clue. Michail was at a total loss, the Master was still busy being sulky and the Doctor silently continued browsing through the mess.

Roka stepped next to the Master, poked his arm and grinned up at his annoyed face. "Actually... who of you two _is_ the older one?"

He grumbled something, then pointed at the Doctor. "Well, used to be. Just a few months though. And with all that time travelling it's hard to say who is the older one _right now_."

"Yeah..." the other Time Lord made.

Michail exchanged a quick look with Roka and both smiled. It was obvious that those superior aliens had not the slightest idea what age exactly they were at this moment in time. Roka decided to tease neither of them with it - for now - and just focused on what the Doctor did with her tablet. Eventually the Master snatched it away and also took a glance, then peeked at Roka with a somewhat mischievous half-smirk.

"Oh no," she muttered and sighed. "I won't like this idea, right?"

"Very right," the Master announced happily and waved the tablet in front of her face. "You know, this thing here is not the most advanced tech out there."

"So?" Roka shrugged. She hadn't been bothered putting her brain chip into any other device. The one Chegg had given to her was as good as any.

"And your brain is astonishingly good at finding patterns," the blond Time Lord continued with a widening grin. "For a human at least."

"Sooo?" Her gaze shot to the Doctor, who seemed to slowly get what this was about.

"Right!" he called out and beamed at Roka. "The TARDIS is great and all that, but she needs lots of energy to keep all functions upright. If we take too much, she won't work and if we take what we have, it will take ages." He happily waved a finger in front of her face. "But a human brain is like a super computer! A Time Lord's is better, of course," he rambled on, "but since you can access yours so easily..."

"We can transfer all this data right into your head," the Master concluded.

"Ooooi! What the hell are you planning with my little sis again?!" Amy called out, just strolling into the console room from outside.

She and Rory had visited her parents, while everyone else had been busy in the TARDIS.

"It does sound a little dangerous," Rory seconded, throwing an uncertain glance at Roka.

She had no idea what to do about all of this, if she was honest. The Doctor and certainly not the Master would suggest anything that would put her in too much danger. But, then again, both of them weren't quite known for having the best instinct when it came to determine the meaning of danger for a _human_.

"If it will help finding Josh quicker," she gazed up at the Master, then the Doctor, "I'll do it."

"It... won't harm you, right?" Rory asked carefully and sceptically eyed the tablet, then Roka.

As much as he still seemed to distrust her, he had long accepted that his wife liked Roka, and so he did his best to at least stay neutral towards her. After all she had also played a huge role in getting them all back into existence and all that. At least this was what Amy had told Roka.

Her thoughts got abruptly interrupted when a sharp sting of pain went through her head. Roka winced and almost doubled, holding a hand to her head.

"Whoops," the Master said and gave her an apologetic, albeit wicket grin. "Too much at once."

Roka groaned annoyed and was glad the pain already subsided.

"Can't you at least let me sit down first?" she grumbled and slumped down on a jump seat.

He only snickered in response and started to transfer the data under the Doctor's watchful eye. It took a few seconds before she noticed anything, but then it felt as it usually did when she was exposed to too much sensory input at once. She got tired, her eyes started burning and her head spun a little. It didn't hurt though, so it was easy to relax and wait for... _something _to happen.

Another few seconds went by and she felt fingers at her temples. Roka opened her eyes and found the Master in front of her, and then felt him entering her mind. The very first time he had done this it had been forceful, rough and unpleasant, to say the least. But now the Master found his way with elegancy, evading the barriers she had set up there, manoeuvring around parts she'd rather be left untouched.

Roka let out a sigh and relaxed, opening herself up to him. She knew he would not harm her, and he was no one to blame or scold her for some of the things she had locked away. He smiled when he noticed that thought and she somehow felt it without even looking.

_'What are you doing here anyway?'_ she thought, wondering if he was able to hear it.

_'You might have a good brain for patterns, but it's slow and unorganized compared to a Time Lord's.'_

She gave him a mental nod, swallowing down a snappy comment about him entering without permission again. His response was a mean snickering and she couldn't help but grin back. It wasn't as if she would hate him being in her head. Quite the opposite actually. As long as he wasn't trying to forcefully pull out memories it always had been an enjoyable sensation.

_'Is it?'_, his voice echoed in her mind.

She mentally nodded again and felt him brushing something in her mind, like fingers tracing along the edges of her consciousness. Her heart started to beat more rapidly the more the sensation travelled along her essence, carefully grazing an area she hadn't know existed. A sigh escaped her when he traced this area with his mind, teasing and nudging it playfully.

_'What's there?'_ she wanted to know.

A small laugh was in her head and the sensation vanished from the spot. _'You wouldn't understand.'_

_'Try me.'_

"Got something!" the Doctor called out interrupting their unheard conversation. "Oh, this is magnificent! Brilliant! There's... oh, still lots and lots of coordinates. But they cluster at certain points in... time actually. Interesting. We're dealing with time travellers!"

"Obviously," Amy's voice tossed in. "Otherwise they couldn't have rewritten part of Roka's history, could they?"

"More time travellers," Rory sighed. "That's... uh... not a good thing, right?"

"Riiiight," the Doctor said in thoughts. "It's nothing Time Lord at least."

"Of course not," the Master growled and retreated from Roka. Not without giving her a last mental nudge.

"Hey," the Doctor protested, "you escaped the Time Lock, after all. Who says no one else has? And why can't you tell..."

"Shut it," the Master demanded sourly. "You're not supposed to know yet, and I'd be damned to risk this future... and this present, just so your daft mind doesn't have to be curious any longer."

"Yeah, yeah, alrighty, no need to get angry, Master."

They removed the data from Roka's head and she got up from the seat, however, still feeling tired and dizzy. Yawning she stepped to the Master and glanced at her tablet.

"So, what did we find?"

The Master shrugged and showed her a map of space-time coordinates. There were clusters of dots, showing the most activities there.

"Wait a bit," he mumbled and let a few algorithms run over the data. "There... that narrows it down to the first appearance of this entity or whatever in each cluster. If we go and take a look at a few, I'm sure we'll find something."

Roka took her tablet and scrolled through the list. It was still a lot of data and a lot of places to cover.

"This'll take quite some time," she mumbled and scratched her neck, then slowly looked at everyone. "I... Well, I think it might be time for me to leave."

"Oi! No way!" Amy protested immediately. "You can't go on your own! We promised to help!"

"Yeah... that you did." Roka rubbed her tired eyes and let out another yawn. "Listen, I really appreciate the offer, and everything y'all did for me. But this might take years, decades even." Roka gestured to the data clusters. "And I've got a lot more time than you do, Amy. I won't age."

"That's not a reason! Let us at least-"

"You're still not immortal, idiot," the Master tossed in with a frown.

"And you're not my protector," Roka stated, sighing.

The wrong type of response, she concluded at the sight of the dangerous glint in the Time Lord's eyes.

Finally the Doctor trod in front of Roka and dramatically placed his hands on her shoulders, the boyish face graced by seriousness that didn't quite fit him. There was also a warm light in his eyes, a soothing pool of time and the assurance that all would be well.

"I meant what I said," he stated calmly. "You're always welcomed here. We're friends. Well... I am yours, that must suffice." He winked and a warm grin spread. "Ah, we had a great time together, didn't we? We were awesome, you have to admit!"

Roka huffed. "Yeah, we definitely were. Means you're not gonna try and stop me?"

The Doctor took his hands back and shook his head. "'Cause not. You're an adult and certainly capable enough to make your own decisions. But..." There he held up a finger and glinted at her happily, before he slid a piece of paper into her fingers. "Promise this. If you ever get lonely, if you ever feel lost, if you ever just want to drink a cuppa tea in the library... my TARDIS will welcome you. Just call me, okay?"

Roka blinked at the number, folded the piece of paper and put it in her trouser pocket. Then she rushed forward and hugged the Doctor tightly.

"I will, promise," she mumbled while he rubbed her back.

Amy joined the hug a second later. "I don't want you to leave," she whined. "I'm going to miss you!"

"Hey, I'll visit" Roka laughed. "Could bring you some souvenirs, how about that?"

"Bah, I'm getting sick," the Master complained from behind. "Stop that nonsense already. The sooner we start this, the sooner it's done."

They all released each other and the Doctor eyed the Master with slightly tilted head.

"You're leaving too?"

The blond Time Lord smiled viscously and crossed his arms. "Not planning to tolerate your ugly face one second longer than necessary. Got what I came here for." He shrugged and eyed Roka, then glanced back at the Doctor. "No idea how things'll be in the future. Might be your enemy again next time we meet, might not. Don't think I'll be all whiney and thankful for the ride. Not me!"

The Doctor sighed, but smiled widely nonetheless. "Already thought so." He stepped in front of the Master and Roka could barely see what they were doing, but she saw the amused twinkle in the Master's eyes, when the Doctor said, "I'm looking forward to whatever you'll have in stock for me, old friend."

The only answer was a mean snickering.

"Where will you go?" Roka asked the Master and her heart made a jump when a warm smile met her.

"Didn't you want to travel with me again?" He offered her a hand and the smile widened. "There aren't any proper plans right now. I'm still searching for a purpose. Might as well give you a ride."

Without hesitation Roka took his hand and let him draw her flush against him, the other arm snaked around her waist and his forehead dropped against hers. Nothing more, but the proximity made her heart beat so much faster than it should.

"Or did you already change your mind?"

"N... No... didn't..." she mumbled.

The two got interrupted by a cough from Amy and finally the Doctor.

"Anywhere I can drop you two off?"

"Uh..." Roka looked questioningly at the Master and blushed a little at his charming smile. Gosh, why the hell did he have to be so handsome? She loosened herself from his grip and turned away. "Doesn't matter."

"Nope," the Master seconded and gave the Doctor his sweetest smile. "Remote controllable TARDIS, remember?"

The other Time Lord groaned and rolled his eyes. "Not gonna miss that."

He got the TARDIS moving and landed them in London, back at the place where they had first started this journey. It probably even was the same day, maybe only a few seconds after their past selves had left. There still stood the advertising pillar that was the Master's TARDIS.

They stepped out and Amy and the Doctor hugged Roka a last time, making her promise to visit here and there. Rory shook her hand and Michail also waved good bye, wishing her look with the search for her brother.

It all felt surreal somehow, when the door to the advertising pillar opened and the Master stood next to it, nodding inside. The same way he had done on the asteroid.

One last time Roka waved at everyone and entered into the greenish light, soaking in the atmosphere of the Master's TARDIS. There still stood her emptied-out backpack, there still was the dragon egg sitting on the sofa, there still lay the once broken glass marble on the console. Roka picked it up and held it into the light, watching the tiny specks dancing around in it.

The Master stepped in front of her and took the marble, a smile twitching the corners of his mouth, when he closed his hand around it.

"Let's fill that thing with new stars, shall we?" he asked.

Roka chuckled and nodded. "Yeah. But don't break it this time." She took his fist into her hand and opened his fingers. "Although I wouldn't mind breaking a few other things." Her eyes met his and she gave him an inviting glint, when she poked the marble. "There's lots of stories I haven't told you yet. I was no saint in the past century."

"Oh?" He returned the gaze and there was new hunger in his eyes. One for adventure and danger, one for a little chaos. "Guess I might have an idea or two how to spread a little madness. In case your brother can wait another few days, that is."

"Isn't this a time machine?" Roka asked grinning.

The Master only laughed and moved to the controls, where he placed the marble on a small socket, with much care and as if it was the most precious thing in the universe.

Roka knew they had a long way ahead, but she hadn't lied. She hadn't been a saint, and she surely wasn't about to become one. But now she had a purpose, a goal, and a man at her side, who would protect her from not only the danger ahead, but also from the loneliness in her mind.

This time she was no prisoner here. And when she strolled to the sofa to inspect all the spilled memories from over a century, she couldn't help but smile.

Because there was so much more to come yet.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And there it happened. They are on their own again... or should I say, properly for the first time.  
Is this really chapter 31 already? Geeze... and there are still so many ideas in my head... you won't get rid of this story too fast... xD
> 
> Anyway... we'll get back to the Doctor and Amy eventually. But for now I think the Master and Roka have some things to clear. And they really need some alone time... *cough*
> 
> Thanks for reading! Don't forget to fav, follow and comment! ❤⃛ヾ(๑❛ ▿ ◠๑ )


	33. Epilogue

Amy strolled through the console room, feeling restless and somewhat uneasy. Maybe because it had only been a day since Roka had left with the Master and she already missed them. Okay, she only missed Roka. The Master still was a dick and Amy couldn't stand him.

Maybe she was just worried. She had probed the Doctor for more information about the other Time Lord and he had eventually told her a bunch of occurrences and run-ins with the other man. None of those sounded very pleasant in the best cases and downright unnerving and even lethal in others.

Why had the Doctor even agreed to let this man travel with them? Sure, sometimes he really seemed nice, especially when it came to Roka. But still, Amy had a bad feeling.

"What's bothering you, Amy?"

She looked up, unaware of that she had been staring at a set of buttons on the control table. Rory stood there, oh precious Rory, and this adorable look in his eyes as if he always knew when she didn't feel too well.

"Ah, not much." She shrugged and strolled to her husband to fling her arms around his neck and peck a kiss to his cheek. "I don't know. It's just too silent, right now."

The silence.

Yeah, that surely was the reason.

There was another reason. An uncertainty. Amy looked at Rory and felt such a love for him that it almost overwhelmed her for a moment. He smiled at her, such a gentle smile.

"Everything will be okay," he promised. "But if anything else is bothering you, tell me, yeah? I'm always here for you, you know that."

"Yeah, I know." She smiled back and buried her nose in his shirt at his neck, just wanting to stand here with him and enjoy to be close.

Somehow it felt as if things wouldn't stay like this. It felt as if there was something... No. She couldn't tell Rory about it, not yet. Not before she had spoken to the Doctor about it.

"Come, let's take a look outside," she demanded sassily and grabbed Rory's hand. "The Doctor is out there for hours. Who knows what he has gotten himself into again."

"Yeah," her husband sighed smilingly. "Let's land that old alien a hand, shall we?"

* * *

### \- The End -

* * *

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ooookay, I bet you are confused now. Don't be! Hold on!
> 
> I thought about this for a while and came to the conclusion that the story, as it is, has to find an end here. Because it makes sense, because it feels right...  
And mostly because the oncoming events will deviate from this format too much.
> 
> Guess you could say, what is to follow will get a good bit darker, and also have more mature content in general. *cough* There also is a dynamic I can't resist writing and exploring... so I will do just that. (I also removed the last chapter and will add it to the new story.)
> 
> The sequel will be up soon. A few weeks maximum, probably less. Stay tuned.
> 
> And thank you all for your support! It means a lot to me!


End file.
